More encouragement needed for development of renewable energy .........................................
thechronicleherald.ca
By ROGER TAYLOR / Business Columnist
NOT SO LONG AGO, Nova Scotia had the potential to be on the cutting edge of wind power technology, as a European company contemplated building a wind turbine manufacturing facility in the Amherst area.
For some reason, perhaps due to a lack of political support from successive provincial governments, the plant wasn’t built. And an equally ambitious plan to build a 300-megawatt demonstration wind farm on the Tantramar Marshes, to help sell the Amherst-built turbines, never came to fruition either.
I wasn’t able to confirm this Thursday, but I believe the turbine manufacturing project eventually went to Mexico. That’s too bad for Nova Scotia because a local manufacturing facility would have gone a long way towards developing Nova Scotia’s fledgling wind energy industry.
It would also have become a growth industry, creating many jobs for people filling the growing demand for turbines throughout North America. There is a backlog of requests for delivery of wind turbines of up to two years or more.
Now, instead of leading the pack, Nova Scotia is battling neighbouring provinces in the race for development of alternative energy sources in the face of rising fossil fuel prices.
In principle, a little alternative energy could go a long way in a small province like Nova Scotia, or at least it should, and that leads some to believe that a number of strategic renewable power projects across Nova Scotia would have a major impact on the cost of electricity in this province.
In fact, some supporters of developing renewable energy alternatives are still blaming Nova Scotia politics for partially holding back the development of wind, solar, biomass, tidal, geothermal and run-of-river power.
They blame the government for maintaining regulations that restrict wind power developers, for example, from selling directly to customers. That has meant development of wind projects has been discouraged. In fact, only about 40 megawatts of wind energy has been developed in Nova Scotia despite a government target of 375 megawatts. So what’s the problem?
Another issue for wind power developers has been high property tax assessments on wind farms in this province; the average tax bill in Nova Scotia is about 16 times that of a similar- sized project in Ontario, say the developers.
A more competitive marketplace for electricity in Nova Scotia would encourage the development of the more renewable projects, is another argument.
Nova Scotia prefers the go-slow approach, only building renewable power projects that Nova Scotia Power Inc. is willing to buy from. While Nova Scotia Power is supportive of renewable energy, the company is also in the position of trying to recover the cost of building its expensive power plants that burn fossil fuels.
From the power company’s point of view, moving too quickly to develop renewable energy, such as wind and tidal power, would have the potential of stranding the cost power plant construction because those plants would not be operating at maximum efficiency.
While developing more renewable energy projects is important, there will always be a need for a utility to provide power when the wind isn’t blowing.
So, is there a compromise?
It takes five years just to get a wind project going and once it is in operation, the lifespan of a wind turbine ranges from 20 to 30 years. Perhaps some steps could be made to help NSP get over the energy hump while renewable energy is ramped up.
If Nova Scotia doesn’t move now to more aggressively develop wind and other renewable energy sources, it may be put in a tough position the next time there is an energy crisis and suddenly burning costly oil and coal doesn’t make any sense. |
