To meet its goal of producing one-third of its energy from
renewable sources by 2020, Ireland is in the midst of taking the
next step from test sites to an experimental grid-connected installation on a northwest peninsula. The United Kingdom is also planning a wave energy test site offshore Cornwall.
OpenHydro’s turbine will be anchored to the sea floor about
45 metres below the surface. The company describes its turbine
as having a slow-moving rotor and lubricant-free construction and
operation. With just one moving part and no seals, it is a self-contained rotor with a solid state permanent magnet generator
encapsulated within an outer rim, a design meant to minimize
maintenance requirements.
The third participant is Minas Basin Pulp and Power Co., an 80-
year-old company that produces 100,000 metric tonnes per year
Parrsboro
Advocate
Cape Split West Bay
Cape
Chignecto
Scots Bay
Cape d’Or
BAY OF FUNDY
Halls Harbour
North Mountain
Port Williams
MINAS BASIN
Blomindon
Dellhaven
Evangeline Beach
N
To Annapolis Royal
Berwick
Kentville Wolfville Hantsport
Miller Creek
Windsor
0 km
10 km
20 km
Meander Bridge
z
The Fundy funnel
Because tidal fluctuations in the Bay of Fundy are the most
extreme in the world, the bay has long been considered an ideal
place to develop tidal power. It is also potentially the best site in
North America because the resource is close to an existing power
grid and consumers.
The height of tides is mainly caused by the degree to which the
sun and moon’s influences are acting in the same direction, and
the varying distance between the moon and the earth.
In the deep, deep Minas Basin in the south fork of the Bay of
Fundy, the height range is exacerbated by the narrowing ‘V’ of the
funnel-shaped bay plus a phenomenon called seiche. Seiche is a pulse
maintained by the force of the tides that is comparable to water
rocking in a bathtub. It takes about 13 hours for water to rock from
the mouth to the head of the bay and back, commonly pushing the
range between the highest high tide and the lowest low to 17 metres.
On the New Brunswick side, the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization in September designated
a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. It stretches from the Tantramar
marshes by the Nova Scotia border along through Fundy National
Park and over to the Fundy Trail and St. Martins. The 432,000 hectares includes 9,940 hectares of estuarine coastal habitat, and a diverse
topography ranging from towering cliffs to broad salt marshes.
UNESCO’s biosphere reserves have no jurisdiction over land-management issues, but they demonstrate a combination of sustainable economic development, community health, and support
for research, education, and training. Aboriginal artifacts in the
region date back more than 6,000 years.
of paperboard products. With a 50-year history of using recycled
feedstock, it now produces 100 per cent recycled goods.
It operates two hydro generation facilities to supply electricity to its paperboard mills. That experience plus its commitment to environmental stewardship are its springboard into the
tidal power project.
Minas has acquired approval to build the infrastructure
to connect the tidal devices from the bay to the provincial
power grid.
In what Swiss inventor calls “a tremendous boost,” Minas
is underwriting design development and implementation of a
unit produced by UEK (Underwater Electric Kite). Vauthier has
been working since 1981 on prototypes to capture the energy
from river, tidal, and ocean currents.
UEK’s buoyant free-flow hydro-kinetic turbine is tethered to
the seabed by a single anchorage system that keeps it at a
controlled depth about three metres below the surface of the
water, Vauthier told Oilweek in an interview from his Annapolis,
Maryland, office. Positioning controls keep the unit in the core
of the current, like a kite riding the wind.
Which turbine is most successful is “a question of cost,
efficiency, and [the degree of] disturbing nature,” Vauthier
says, adding, “To have been chosen is very nice; I like it
very much.”
Although UEK has projects underway on the Zambezi River
in Africa and in Alaska, being chosen “is a tremendous boost
because we are a small company.”
Vauthier describes his turbine as “a very, very efficient
system, which translates into a smaller device for more
energy. We do not have a footprint on the bottom, so we
are not going to have excavation and construction. There
is one main cable parallel to the flow of the tide. Two pen-ants—short cables attached to the main cable—attach to
the machine, which will be 10 feet below the surface of the
water at low tide.”
The end not facing the tide closes, like a valve in the heart.
“The flow penetrates the hole in the centre and moves the turbine. A vacuum in the back accelerates the flow” and therefore
increases the power extracted.
ATEC Power Inc. of Nova Scotia has the rights to build and
operate the UEK turbine.
The companies hope to complete their installations in
early 2009.
Besides the $4.7 million the province’s Ecotrust for Clean
Air and Climate Change program has earmarked for the test
facility, EnCana Corp. is offering a $3-million, zero-interest loan
from its environmental innovation fund. The province will make
$300,000 available for environmental and permitting work.
The participating companies may qualify for federal funding
that could cover up to one-third of their costs.
Nova Scotia is keen to get away from coal-based electricity,
given its commitment to cutting greenhouse gas emissions to
10 per cent below its 1990 levels by 2020 and its regulations
demanding that nearly 20 per cent of the province’s electricity
supply come from renewable sources by 2013.
Premier Rodney MacDonald believes tidal power can supply
about 15 per cent of Nova Scotia’s electricity, but the project
may crash against uncharted shoals.
The companies are not allowed to dip a toe into the water
until the completion of strategic and site-specific environmental assessments related to concerns about icing in winter
and gravel and sediment moving on the seabed, provincial
and federal permits and approvals, and cost-sharing and land
lease agreements.
