Tidal energy is now flowing onto Nova Scotia's grid
Harnessing the power of the highest tides in the world produced by Canada’s Bay of Fundy has been a major engineering challenge. Sustainable Marine just did it, and they’re now selling tidal energy to the Nova Scotia government.
A decade in development, power production in Grand Passage has begun with tidal energy officially flowing onto Nova Scotia's grid.
The Weather Network (TWN) was invited out to tour the Sustainable Marine’s floating platform to get a first-hand look at what Jason Hayman, the company's CEO, describes as “next gen technology” just off Westport, Nova Scotia.
This in-stream system is well advanced from previous iterations that attempted to harness the power of the world's highest tides in the Bay of Fundy with large structures lowered to the sea bed.
Commercial operation of the platform began June 9, 2022. (Sustainable Marine)
"The difference is that we can get to everything. We're on it here now. We're here, we can maintain it just like a ship, we can get to things, we can fix things and we don't need to go and do a really expensive operation to pull it off the seabed to do that," Hayman told TWN.
Nova Scotia Minister Of Environment and Climate Change Timothy Halman toured the platform now selling it’s energy at 50 cents a kilowatt hour, an incentive for others to invest.
The next phase of this project will see platforms deployed to the Minas Passage at the Fundy Ocean Research Centre for Energy. (Sustainable Marine)
"As we navigate our way through climate change, this type of innovation is fundamental to be supported by the provincial government. For the next generation of Nova Scotians and Canadians, we're standing literally on the future of clean energy production," said Halman.
Each of the six turbines on this platform is rated for 70 kilowatts but Hayman says they will get scaled with time.
You can take a tour of the platform and learn more in the video above.
Thumbnail image: The PLAT-I 6.4 floating tidal platform in operation off Westport, Nova Scotia. (Sustainable Marine)
