Nova Scotia looks to become offshore energy superpower

The Nova Scotia government is hoping to become a major energy provider with the Wind West project.

The Nova Scotia government thinks it has a resource that could make it one of the major energy providers in Canada.

“We have onshore, but our offshore winds are first class. They’re world class and they could be producing enough power to support much of Canada,” says Energy Minister Trevor Boudreau.

If the “Wind West” project gets off the ground, it could cover as much as 25 per cent of the nation’s energy needs. Nova Scotia is hoping to have offshore wind turbines producing five gigawatts of electricity but Boudreau thinks the output could be much more.

“They have the potential to produce 66 gigawatts of power so with that in mind, Nova Scotia uses 2.4 gigawatts at its coldest day of the year,” he says.

It will be a couple years before turbines are standing in the ocean. Once they are in place, power would move by cable throughout the country and possibly across the ocean to Europe.

The Ecology Action Centre is on board but they’re closely watching how the project unfolds.

“Ultimately we’re very much in favour of building a transmission line and we are in favour of building offshore wind, but the devil is in the details when it comes to building offshore wind,” says Thomas Arnason McNeil.

“Are we making sure that we are engaging fishing communities, indigenous communities that rely on the fishing economy at the earliest stages of project development?”

Premier Tim Houston is attending meetings with other premiers and the prime minister to gather support for the project.

“We all see the opportunities that we have before us to make for a stronger country and we’re all pushing in that direction,” says Houston.

Five areas have been highlighted for potential wind farm development:

• French Bank
• Middle Bank
• Sable Island Bank
• Western/Emerald Bank.
• Sydney Bight

Four are off the province’s eastern shore, the other is off Cape Breton.

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