All FERN News
Dutch firm to test floating turbine in Bay of Fundy
A Dutch firm that calls the Bay of Fundy “the holy grail” aims to exploit the bay’s powerful tidal currents by testing a floating turbine system starting next year.
Halifax-based Minas Energy announced Tuesday it was partnering with Netherlands firm Tocardo International BV and Ontario-based International Marine Energy Inc. to form the Minas Tidal Limited Partnership.
The new partnership plans to test the Dutch company’s technology in the Minas Passage by late 2017, the third distinct approach announced recently to harnessing the bay’s powerful forces.
Tidal Power Project Makes Waves in Canada
The Bay of Fundy is at the end of the Gulf of Maine, bordered by the provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. When the tide flows into the outer bay, 160 billion tons of water rush in at a speed of one to two meters per second. Where the bay narrows to squeeze through the five-and-a-half kilometer wide Minas Passage, 14 billion tons of seawater accelerate to five meters per second.
Cape Sharp Tidal turbine arrives in Halifax Harbour
The first of two giant tidal turbines to be installed in the Bay of Fundy arrived in Halifax Harbour Thursday morning for the next stage of the project.
Cape Sharp Tidal had one of the 1,000-tonne turbines hauled by barge to Halifax for ballasting work in the coming days.
The turbine's steel subsea base will be ballasted with concrete then tested and inspected for use. Cape Sharp says the turbine will rest on the sea floor under its own weight.
EMO Marine Technologies Ltd., talks about their unique multiplexer system and their work with FORCE
VIDEO: Tom Knox, Founder of Halifax-based company, EMO Marine Technologies Ltd., talks about their unique multiplexer system and their work with FORCE (Fundy Ocean Research Centre for Energy) to help monitor the tides in the Bay of Fundy (the highest tides in the world).
OPINION: Science should give wider berth to traditional knowledge of Fundy tides
Traditional knowledge is passed on from one generation to the next and from one fishing community to the next. Today, fishermen and aboriginal peoples are aware we must integrate our traditional knowledge into the institutions that serve us. It is essential to our survival and the ecosystem’s. As scientists attempt to manage and or exploit the environment and renewable resources, this is a must.
Traditional knowledge is accumulated knowledge and understanding of the place in which we survive, in relation to the world, in both an ecological and a deeply spiritual sense. Scientists must never forget traditional knowledge is science and its sound and must not be ignored.