The Ecology Action Centre has released an initial position statement on the Cape Sharp Tidal Demonstration Project in the Bay of Fundy.
The EAC acknowledges that test turbines such as those at the Cape Sharp Tidal Demonstration Project must be deployed in order to test the feasibility of safely generating renewable electricity from tidal energy. However, environmental effects from turbines in such a uniue environment are far from predictable, and as such a precautionary approach should be adopted. A lack of existing technology is not a sufficient excuse to not properly monitor effects. These test turbines must be properly monitored to test and validate assumptions, while providing a safeguard should unacceptable levels of environmental impacts occur.
The EAC’s position is that a world class and cutting edge project in a region with the world’s highest tides and some of its strongest currents requires world class and cutting edge monitoring.
Everybody working in the ocean has a responsibility to be mindful of their impact—individually and as part of an industry. I grew up boating on the Ocean and I still love to boat in the Bay of Fundy. I agree with fishermen when they call for thorough assessments of the impact of tidal power development on the Bay of Fundy. It is, after all, the biggest tidal research project in the world today.
I expect the same care would be taken if we were talking about exploratory drilling for minerals, aquaculture or dragging. Nobody has a monopoly on the ocean’s resources, and no industry alone bears the burden of ensuring that our oceans are healthy and activity carried on there is sustainable.
The first of two towering turbines designed by Cape Sharp Tidal to harness the immense power of the Bay of Fundy will be installed next month off the coast of Nova Scotia, an company official announced Thursday.
Sarah Dawson, the community relations manager for the project, said one of the five-storey high, two-megawatt turbines built in Pictou by Aecon Atlantic Industrial Inc., will be loaded on a barge during the first week of June and travel around the province until it reaches the test site near Parrsboro.
Video: The long awaited Cape Sharp Tidal project is now in the home stretch. The plan to harness power from the waters of the Bay of Fundy will be put to the test next month, when the first of two five-storey high turbines will be installed. Global’s Natasha Pace reports.
Nova Scotia renewable energy company Black Rock Tidal Power Inc. announced Wednesday that it has awarded the contract to fabricate its TRITON S40 tidal power platform for Aecon Atlantic Industrial Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Aecon Group Inc. The first full-scale fabrication of this technology in the world, the instream tidal device will be installed in the Bay of Fundy in 2017.
