Two main environmental groups give a boost to Nova Scotia Ambitious plan to considerably extend its wind wind turbine industry.
But the two groups quickly added warnings.
Prime Minister Tim Houston said on Monday that the plan for the province of license license enough offshore wind farms to produce five megawatts of electricity would be increased by eight to 40 megawatts, far beyond the 2.4 Nova Scotia megawatts. He called Ottawa to cover the costs of his new Wind West project, saying that excess electricity could be used to provide 27% of Canada’s total demand.
“Nova Scotia is at the forefront of a breakthrough of clean energy,” said progressive Prime Minister in an online video, adding that the province is ready to become an “energy superpower”.
Gretchen Fitzgerald, Executive Director of Sierra Club Canada, said that the Prime Minister’s bold plan, which includes construction lines across the country, represents an exciting opportunity for the province.
“This could change the situation for the region and for Canada,” she said in an Ottawa interview. “But it must be done correctly and with consultations.”
Fitzgerald said that the governments of Nova Scotia and Canada must focus on obtaining long-term advantages of the emerging offshore wind industry because they have done a bad job on this front when they deal with the oil and offshore gas sector.
“We must make sure that we do not sell what is a massive resource for less advantages than communities should not have,” said Fitzgerald, adding that Nova Scotia continues to suffer from a high energy poverty rate. In May of this year, the affordability of public services, Roger Colton, produced a report showing that 43% of Nova Scotia Scots were struggling to pay their energy bills – the highest proportion in Canada.
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While Fitzgerald applauded Houston’s own energy plan, she criticized what she described as the Prime Minister’s populist inclination to take decisive measures before consulting experts and the public.
“Going from a few hundred turbines to thousands in the next decade must be done in a staging way, so we learn to do this,” she said, adding that Houston seems to have adopted a mentality of “” move and rupture. “”
“(This) can lead to unacceptable damage to sensitive oceanic life,” she said. “From the point of view of the advantages and acceptance of the community, Breaking Trust can be the biggest obstacle to obtaining good climatic solutions.”
In October 2023, the Public Policy Forum published a study saying that Sand Island Bank, an ocean area about 180 kilometers south of Nova Scotia, was among the best world locations for wind energy production.
“He and several other areas, similarly endowed with the coast of Atlantic Canada, have the potential to place the region among the main global offshore eolian development centers,” said the report of the independent non -profit reflection group.
He continues by saying that when the world goes from a dependence on fossil fuels with energy forms which do not emit tightness gases which change the climate, Atlantic Canada is confronted with “an opportunity once in life … to recover an economic vitality comparable to the age of sail – rightly strengthened on the power of the wind at sea.”
The report indicates that the installation of 15 offshore wind production gigawatts would create around 30,000 direct jobs per year.
Despite the media threshing, industry must also gain acceptance of the Nova Scotia fishing industry, which contributed in 2023 to 2.5 billion dollars to the economy of the province and employed 19,000 people.
In Halifax, a spokesperson for the Ecology Action Center called on the provincial government to strengthen public confidence, in particular with coastal communities.
“There must really be a priority on the commitment of stakeholders for all users of the Ocean,” said the main energy coordinator Thomas Arnason McNeil.
“We will have to prioritize the ecological guarantees and preserve the existing means of subsistence that we have. This includes the fishing industry. It is half of the economy in Nova Scotia. ”
However, he said that the big push in the province for clean energy is on the right track, especially when it comes to building its electrical network to better connect with the rest of the country.
If it is well done, the gain would be huge, said Arnason McNeil.
“We are talking about the creation of serious jobs here and many revenues potentially,” he said. “The main thing is that you have to do that well. (But) the price at the end of the road is monumental in terms of services. ”
A call for offers to build enough offshore turbines to generate five gigawatts of electricity is expected this year.
& Copy 2025 the Canadian press