Nova Scotia is a small picturesque province on the Atlantic coast of Canada, but his appetite for green energy is large and aggressive as it moves to set aside from coal, and won praise for his efforts.
Last month, the province, the second smallest of Canada, presented the highest rate in North America for developers of small wind energy projects and the largest in the world of small power plants driven by ocean tides.
The feed-in called tariffs are part of a plan unveiled by the provincial government last year to spend a quarter of electricity generation in Nova Scotia to renewable energy sources such as wind, tidal and biomass in 2015.
Nearly 90 percent of electricity in Nova Scotia is now fired by coal, which wants to change, not only for environmental reasons. There was a time when their coal mines supplied their own production, but most of the mines were closed and the coal has become expensive to import.
"We have set some aggressive goals in North America," Energy in Nova Scotia Finance Minister Charlie Parker told Reuters in an interview last week. "I'm pretty sure they meet."
Several Canadian provinces have committed to achieve a variety of renewable energy targets, but Nova Scotia notes. Its purpose is written only in the law and the fines imposed only if the fault.
"They are the only province that has what I call a renewable energy portfolio with teeth," said Jeff Jenner, CEO of Sprott Power Corp., which builds wind energy projects in Nova Scotia and is a candidate for more.
In 2020, Nova Scotia wants 40 percent of its electricity to be renewable, enough electricity to more than 500,000 homes.
POWER OF COMMUNITY
The most generous rates in Nova Scotia are only available for small community projects that are owned by municipalities, First Nations and co Comfit in its program and not to big developers.
Ontario's most populous province of Canada, launched a feed-in much larger and broader tariff program two years ago paying remunerative prices. In the Ontario program, however, has led to higher electricity prices, and has become a major issue in the provincial election this week.
That Nova Scotia has for him is his need for relatively low power. To meet its 2015 target of 25 percent renewable energy, the province only needs about 300 megawatts (MW) of new installed capacity of wind power, said Jean-Francois Nolet, a policy manager the Canadian Wind Energy Association.
This is less than half the size of some individual farms, the big wind in the United States.
"Nova Scotia program is an excellent example to follow, especially in the Atlantic region. But it would be difficult to replicate in the province, like Ontario, where the scale is too large," said Nolet.
In total, Nova Scotia is the only prize of 100 MW in ComFit program. Communities to develop small wind projects qualify for 20-year rates of 49.9 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh), almost four times the rate for Ontario.
For small in-stream tidal energy province will pay a steep 65.2 cents per kWh.
For larger developers, Nova Scotia to open a tender this month, not 100 MW. The courses wind is slightly lower than that paid in Ontario. Provincial utility Nova Scotia Power, to develop the second 100 MW of renewable energy.
Developers are positive, but there are problems.
"To find mass with diets high winds that are related to the transmission out significant accumulation is very difficult," said Mike Magnus, CEO of wind shear, which owns the farm in Nova Scotia's largest wind Glen Dhu.
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