Many people want to see the power tapped from the Bay of Fundy tides. From fishers to developers, politicians to environmentalists, there’s some agreement around marine renewable energy having the potential to power our communities.

There’s enough potential in the surging Fundy tides to power 120,000 homes. A study by the Electric Power Research Institute in California estimates 300 megawatts can be generated through the use of TISEC (tidal in-stream energy conversion) turbines. Nova Scotia sites are located primarily between Parrsboro through to Huntington Point, however, there are opportunities for smaller, community-driven operations around Digby Neck.

People also have serious concerns about the impacts of tidal power. From developers to fishers, aboriginals and environmentalists, many of the same stakeholders are concerned about how this dynamic, nutrient-rich area will respond to having hundreds of turbines submerged beneath its waters.

To determine the potential ecological and socio-economic impacts of tidal power, the Nova Scotia and New Brunswick governments funded the Offshore Energy Environmental Research Association (OEER) to produce a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) report. A Technical Advisory Group, comprised of various academic, fishery and government representatives, considered suggestions from 23 stakeholders and a variety of reports and studies when they compiled the 29 detailed recommendations.

The SEA Report plus many of the support documents and reports are available at: www.offshoreenergyresearch.ca.

A conditional go-ahead offered in the report, submitted to the NS Department of Energy, urges a cautious, incremental approach be employed in developing this project. However, the recommendations are not binding.

Time isn’t right: lobster fisher

Local lobster fisher Mark Taylor doesn’t feel tidal power is right yet. He’s a third generation fisher, having pulled lobster traps by hand, out in a rowboat with his grandfather, as did his father before him. Mark now owns three lobster licenses plus others for scallop and groundfish. Add to that his three boats and nine employees and it’s a long way from the dory on the Bay, and significantly more costly, but only a small part of the Bay’s billion-dollar fishery.

Taylor hopes this fishery will continue to flourish as it has for generations. He’s protective of the lobster stock, often throwing back as many, or even more than he catches, especially females laden with eggs. “This is the doorway to the nursery,” he says of the Minas Passage. “Lobsters travel from the Bay into the Basin to spawn and molt. Lots of other fish migrate through there as well.”

He takes his stewardship seriously and hopes the exclusion zones around TISEC installations won’t push him out.

“It’s another example of fuel for food,” Taylor said. While he supports the idea of sustainable energy coming from the tides, he and his crews are likely to be the most severely impacted of anyone involved. He has fished these waters his entire career and, “they’re going about it too fast, way too fast.”

So fast, in fact, that in early January this year Rodney MacDonald almost derailed the SEA process when he announced, somewhat prematurely, winners of the tender for a TISEC demonstration facility and companies that would test their devices at it.

"This was not what we expected,” said Lesley Griffiths, process lead of the SEA. The OEER was financed to "advise the government of Nova Scotia on whether, and under what conditions, pilot projects should be permitted”. However, most stakeholders continued to attend the Roundtable meetings and contribute their recommendations.

(Disclosure: I sat at the Stakeholders Roundtable as “member-at-large”.)

Already under assault

Some stakeholders expressed concerns that the Bay of Fundy is under assault by too many industrial projects already. Is the electricity to be exported? How much will it cost the consumer?

Other questions varied from what might happen to the eco-system once turbines are installed to concerns about what the environment might do to these mechanical intruders. Ice floes the size of small apartments, laden with sediment from the Basin, often scour the Channel mercilessly throughout the winter months. Cobblestones the size of watermelons are tossed through the waters of this treacherous, constantly shifting terrain. This is a hostile environment into which to put stationary machinery.

Tidal power technology is in its early stages. However, there is much promise from the Fundy tides Taylor has fished all his life.

But he wants to see some baseline science on the eco-system. There’s little data on the quantity or migratory routes of lobsters in the Passage nor on the other species that navigate the area. The environmental background report done by Jacques Whitford notes that there are wide-ranging gaps in the information concerning the Bay and the ecological impacts of the project.

The SEA recommends dealing with many of these gaps as well as comprehensive studies on the socio-economic aspects of commercial development and an Integrated Coastal Zone Management Policy.

Ambitious plan

The current government has mandated that 20 per cent of Nova Scotia’s energy be obtained from renewable sources by 2013. It’s an ambitious plan.

There are aspirations of Nova Scotia becoming a Centre of Excellence for tidal power, having devices tested and perhaps deemed “Fundy Certified”; able to withstand and be productive in the most powerful tides in the world.

Environment Minister Mark Parent stated last year, “I think we’ve moved too slow on tidal power.” There is eagerness in government to make this happen. Devices are slated to be in the water as early as next year.

The market potential for tidal power is unclear. Few countries have done resource assessments. Clean Current, selected to test their turbine in the Bay of Fundy, has estimated some 67,000 MW of potential tidal power around the planet—the equivalent of 23 million Canadian homes—and a potential global market for equipment worth $200 billion. At 20 cents/kW hour, the market for tidal electricity could be $27 billion annually.

Big bucks. Powerful tides. Beautiful Bay. Where’s the balance to be?

Public forums regarding the SEA took place around Nova Scotia last week, including in Wolfville at Acadia University’s Fountain Commons (Great Hall), May 8.

Source: NovaNewsNow.com 

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