Renewable energy’s time to shine
High oil prices make alternate sources viable
By JUDY MYRDEN Business Reporter
Sat. Jun 7 - 5:27 AM
WITH OIL REACHING record high prices, well over $138 a barrel, renewable energy is finally becoming economical.
And that’s what emerged at the third annual Renewable Energy Conference in Halifax this week.
Projects have gone from the drawing board to construction phase and are being integrated into the province’s electrical power system.
This has caught the attention of the energy-hungry U.S. Northeast, which needs clean power that meets strict pollution control targets south of the border.
"At some point we are going to need a significant contribution from the provinces," said Michael Stoddard, a lawyer and a director of Environment Northeast of Portland, Maine.
(Environment Northeast is a non-profit energy research and policy organization.)
"Nova Scotia’s situation is superb. You have excellent resources and you have demonstrated the ability to site, and finance, and build those projects pretty quickly."
In fact, many myths were busted this week at the conference, including: Nova Scotia doesn’t have a viable solar regime, electricity can’t be stored and wind turbines will cause the power system to collapse.
The renewable energy industry was on display this week with over 250 delegates attending, some from as far away as Texas and the Yukon. It has gone from the Birkenstocks to the Brooks Brothers crowd.
Nova Scotia Power, one of the key players in renewable energy here, was visibly absent from the conference. The utility informed organizers that company officials were too busy to make any presentations or participate in the 13 panel discussions.
Instead, the privately owned utility, which recently reported record-breaking profits, offered to sponsor the coffee breaks.
These days renewable industry executives, engineers and consultants have sharpened their pencils and are busy making their business cases to get financing and contracts
Leading the pack in Nova Scotia is the wind power sector which has had great success, even attracting global investment bankers, Lehman Brothers, to the province to invest in a 30-megawatt wind farm at Digby Neck.
Currently there are 41 wind turbines in the province, providing enough electricity for 17,000 homes. The number is expected to grow to 300 by 2010, after Nova Scotia Power recently signed contracts with six developers for an excess of 240 megawatts, enough power for 60,000 homes.
Speakers at the conference championed solar energy and compared it to wind-generated electricity, which didn’t exist here five years ago.
Halifax architect John Crace said Nova Scotia has better solar resources than places like Japan and Germany where photovoltaic cells, which convert solar energy into electricity, are used to help power car plants.
He urged both government and the electrical utility to be more proactive about the potential of trapping the sun’s powerful rays.
And a challenge facing renewable energy entrepreneurs is storing this clean energy. A company may enter a contract to sell its renewable energy, but the energy supply is not constant — the wind blows in peaks and valleys, and solar energy cannot be produced at night.
"I’m sure everyone here has heard you can’t store electricity. That’s not true," said Brian Beck, of VRB Power Systems in Richmond, B.C.
The cutting-edge technology company uses a battery that looks like a small "chemical plant" to store electricity produced by renewable energy and it can store up to 10 megawatts.
The advantage of using the battery is to "smooth out generation" for intermittent power produced by wind turbines, tidal and solar, said Mr. Beck, adding the company has six projects underway around the world.
The company recently completed a test project at Natural Resources Canada which had been running for a year and the report should be out shortly.
Nova Scotia’s deputy energy minister Alison Scott outlined how the skyrocketing price of fossil fuels is changing the energy market.
"Our carbon-intensive power system is a problem," said Ms. Scott, "not only from an environmental perspective, but also in terms of economics. . . . Nova Scotia is vulnerable to the rising costs of world energy prices."
Currently, the impact of wind, tidal and hydro in the province’s energy mix is negligible. Fossil fuels — coal, petroleum coke, oil and natural gas — account for approximately 90 per cent of electricity generation in this province.
In late May, NSP applied for a 13.6 per cent hike in residential power rates, blaming volatile world energy markets for the increase.
Ms. Scott told the over 200 delegates this "carbon-based system" is also an opportunity . . . for renewable energy to make a significant impact in Nova Scotia.
To take advantage of these opportunities, a Halifax engineering firm has catalogued the needed services.
Approximately 70 Nova Scotia companies are involved with renewable energy projects and over 200 companies have been identified with the expertise or capability required for renewable energy projects, said David Lea, senior project manager, with CBCL, a Halifax-based engineering and consulting firm.
"Some of the things in Nova Scotia we do well, others not, some not at all," Mr. Lea said at the conference.
Like any maturing industry there are some lessons to be learned.
Well-known Halifax lawyer George Cooper offered some advice to the new developers. He said it is easy for an energy project to fail if the local com-munity hasn’t been consulted, even if you have the best lawyers and engineers.
He encouraged companies to hire a public relations firm and have a local presence to address any concerns raised about a project.
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