Nova Scotia taking more steps toward offshore wind development

Nova Scotia is stepping closer to the development of offshore wind farms in its open waters, but the success of the province's pursuit is far from certain.

In the past two weeks, the provincial and federal governments formalized the regulatory body that will oversee offshore wind development, announced their membership in the Global Offshore Wind Alliance, and received a report that's meant to guide their next steps.

The province reiterated its focus on offshore wind in the throne speech last week, and Nova Scotia Energy Minister Trevor Boudreau recently confirmed that the Progressive Conservative government intends to open the first call for offshore wind projects sometime this year.

But there are obstacles to overcome.

Graham Daborn, chair of the government committee that spent much of the past two years assessing Nova Scotia's potential for offshore wind development, said one challenge is shifting winds in America.

The Trump factor

One of the first executive orders from U.S. President Donald Trump was to suspend new offshore wind leases.

"We're not going to do the wind thing. Big, ugly wind mills. They ruin your neighborhood," he said.

Daborn said Trump's hostility makes the future of the offshore wind industry "difficult to forecast." He said one possible outcome could be that offshore wind developers migrate from the U.S. to Canada, but another is that the industry suffers globally.

Elisa Obermann hopes it's the former.

Obermann, the executive director of Marine Renewables Canada, an industry advocacy group, said in an interview that "there are a lot of developers in the U.S. obviously that this creates uncertainty for."

"There's a possibility that because they have North American offices already established, they could start looking to Canada more, and we're actually already receiving queries from different developers that are active in the United States market."

Industry needs more information

Obermann said there is lots of interest in Nova Scotia from offshore wind developers – not just the American firms that are shopping for new markets – but they're all waiting for more information before getting serious.

Obermann said developers need to know the details of wind leases, including how much energy projects can produce and where it will go — that is, to the local grid or to export markets.

The province has said it wants to offer licences for five gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030, and it has its sights set on exporting at least some of that to Europe in the form of green hydrogen. But Obermann said developers want more specifics.

"They need to have some assurance that there is going to be a revenue–generating mechanism," she said.

Obermann said a lacklustre call for bids risks not attracting any bidders, which she said has happened in other international calls. On the other hand, she said some calls have been so competitive they become "inflationary."

She said there have been offshore leases that soared into the billions of dollars, resulting in high energy prices for consumers.

Protecting the fishery

Another challenge, according to Daborn, is finding a way to support offshore wind while also protecting existing ocean industries. 

"We have a great deal of concern, particularly about the fisheries, and it is clear that we wouldn't want to sacrifice the fisheries in any real way in order just to produce some electrons," he said.

Some fisheries representatives voiced their concerns last fall about large areas flagged for potential wind development in a draft report from the regional assessment committee.

The potential development areas are unchanged in the final report, released this month. But Kris Vascotto, executive director of the Nova Scotia Seafood Alliance, said other changes were made.

The final report highlights the need for fisheries and offshore wind projects to coexist, and if that isn't possible, for fishers to be compensated for losses.

"It appears that the fishing industry was very-well listened to in some aspects of the report," he said in an interview.

He noted that although the potential development areas are large and they include some lucrative fishing grounds where the two industries could clash, the government has yet to say what areas it will actually offer up to developers.

Nova Scotia Energy Minister Trevor Boudreau said his department and federal counterparts are reviewing the final report from the regional assessment committee and have not made any decisions about what recommendations they'll accept.