This could cost between $ 5 billion and $ 10 billion to build a line of transmission that would connect offshore wind farms offered by Nova Scotia with the rest of the country, said Prime Minister Tim Houston.
The approximate estimate follows its announcement last week that Nova Scotia wants to authorize enough offshore turbines over the next 10 years to produce 40 electricity gigawatts – eight times more than that was initially planned.
“It’s a concept,” said Houston after a firm meeting on Thursday, referring to the Wind West project. “It is a very powerful concept…. My goal, at the start, was to capture the imagination of the Scottish of Nova Scotia. ”
For a context on the size of Houston’s ambitions, Nova Scotia, with a little over a million people, requires 2.4 GW on peak demand. The Global Wind Energy Council, based in Brussels, published a 2025 report indicating that the offshore wind turbines of China produced just under 42 GW from last year. The Council says that the Offshore Wind Energy Industry added 11 GW in 2023 and 8 GW in 2024.
Houston continued by saying that the project would require that “hundreds” of wind turbines will be built in water about 100 meters deep, about 25 kilometers off.
A renewable energy expert, however, said that it would take much more turbines to generate 40 GW of reliable electricity, assuming that a cutting -edge capacity of 66 GW would be necessary. Sven Scholtysik, research director of Net Zero Atlantic, said that on the basis of the current industry standard to use 15 megawatts, Wind West would need the construction of more than 4,000 offshore turbines.
Despite this large number, Scholtysik said there would be a lot of room for them in the middle of the 19,500 square kilometers in the five “wind energy zones” selected in January by an independent committee appointed by federal governments and Nova Scotia.
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When they asked him how long it would take to build such an ambitious project, Scholtysik said that it would be difficult to find a specific calendar.
“When we look at how long it takes to build an offshore wind farm, this 10 -year number is almost correct,” said Scholtysik, who focuses on electricity, clean fuels and modeling. “But this ambition to install 66 GW will probably require several projects, not a single project.”
Tina Northrup, lawyer for the East Coast Environmental Law Law Law Association, said that the 10 -year period of Houston does not seem possible, given the need for consultations and environmental studies.
“It would be unrealistic to have so many offshore wind infrastructures in water in a short period of time,” she said. “We understand that this is a vision that could be made from decades in the future. It would not be a kind of all-at-at-in. ”
As for Houston, he said that he had floated the idea on June 2 to attract the attention of Prime Minister Mark Carney, who asked the provincial and territorial leaders to submit offers for infrastructure projects to help Canada resist commercial disorders caused by US President Donald Trump.
“I think Nova Scotia is quite inspired by what is possible,” said Houston. “This would change Nova Scotia and Atlantic Canada and provide green renewable energies that the world is looking for.”
The Prime Minister Progressive Conservative said he wanted Ottawa to cover the costs of Wind West, saying that excess of electricity could provide 27% of Canada’s total demand.
If his plan succeeds, Nova Scotia would become an “energy superpower” which no longer requires payments of federal equalization, he said.
“We could withdraw from this transfer system over the next 20 years if we are looking for the opportunities that are available to us.”
Houston continued to say that Nova Scotia has been equipped with strong and remarkably regular winds.
Scholtysik, whose research group obtains most of its funding from provincial and federal governments, has confirmed that the wind power industry knows that the offshore winds in Nova Scotia are among the strongest and most consistent in the world.
A study of the Wind Energy Research Firm Aegir Insights, based in Denmark, revealed that the Nuva Scotia’s offshore has a “world class water resource”, almost all areas recording coherent wind speeds between 9 and 11 meters per second.
“The coherent availability of good wind resources throughout the offshore territory means that wind speed will probably not be a restrictive factor when it comes to preventing offshore wind farms,” said study 2020.
& Copy 2025 the Canadian press