Canadian Government aids tidal
Canada is emerging as an international
leader in tidal energy research and technology development. Much of this
development is happening right here, in Nova Scotia. The opportunity results
from a number of key factors. First and foremost is the massive resource
potential in the Bay of Fundy.
Other strategic assets include close
proximity to the power grid and local expertise in the ocean industry and
tidal energy sector.
Understanding how to harness that power
in a sustainable manner and capitalize on the economic opportunities it
can provide is getting easier with the creation of a new geographic information
system (GIS) mapping platform. This platform gathers physical, environmental
and infrastructure data from tidal sites along the Bay of Fundy and makes
this information accessible online. The Government of Canada today announced
an investment of $65,000, through the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency’s
(ACOA) Innovative Communities Fund (ICF), in support of this online tidal
energy atlas.
The project is a partnership between
the Acadia Tidal Energy Institute (ATEI) in Wolfville, the Fundy Ocean
Research Centre for Energy (FORCE) in Parrsboro, and Fall River’s Tekmap
Consulting, and resulted in a successful beta-version of the technology
funded by the Offshore Energy Research Association. When launched, the
fully-formed tool will help to build a competitive, sustainable tidal energy
industry across the province as well as provide educational benefits for
the broader community.
The tool will aid in decision-making
related to research, development and deployment by yielding insights such
as the visualization of physical and environmental layers of a site, available
power potential, existing turbulence and the presence of marine life.
The model can also be used to develop
similar tools for tidal energy sectors along Canada’s coastlines, as well
as inform comparable projects throughout the renewable energy sector globally.
In addition to ACOA’s investment, the
Nova Scotia Department of Energy and the Offshore Energy Research Association
are each investing $20,000 in the project. FORCE is also investing $10,000
in the project as well as in-kind expertise.
“Tidal energy has the potential
to be a source of clean, local energy for generations to come. Understanding
how to harness its power can be challenging: it can be expensive to capture
data from fast moving water and finding suitable tidal sites requires not
only resource data, but many other variables – including marine life and
access to the power grid. This tool will make planning future sites easier,
and allow easier access to the data for more people.”
-
Tony Wright, General Manager, Fundy Ocean Research Center for Energy
Over the next 25 years, the tidal energy
industry could contribute up to $1.7 billion to Nova Scotia’s gross domestic
product (GDP), create up to 22,000 jobs and generate as much as $815 million
in labour income, according to a study commissioned by the Offshore Energy
Research Association of Nova Scotia.
