A pair of international companies have come together to bring Canada its first ever offshore wind farm.
Global renewable energy group DP Energy has partnered with SBM Offshore, an organization that specializes in building infrastructure at sea, to bring the project to fruition. DP Energy CEO Simon De Pietro says the project is just a steppingstone towards realizing Canada’s potential as a renewable energy powerhouse.
“I think there is a huge opportunity here. The resource out there is phenomenal,” said De Pietro.
Indeed, Nova Scotia is home to some of the strongest and most frequent offshore winds in the world. With offshore wind already much more productive than onshore projects, SBM Offshore’s head of project development, Ambroise Wattez, says offshore wind farms produce energy at full capacity about 60 percent of the time. Meanwhile onshore farms produce at full capacity somewhere between 20 to 30 percent of the time. Harnessing the strength of Atlantic Canada’s wind could be a catalyst in Canada’s efforts to move away from carbon-based energy.
The project won’t be cheap. Wattez says it will cost somewhere near $1.5 billion, but De Pietro says money should not be a concern when discussing the fight against climate change.
“Can we afford it? I turn that around [and say] ‘can we afford not to do this?’ Not unless you guys have got a different planet that we can all go to and move on,” said De Pietro.
The farm is proposed to be built roughly 20 to 30 kilometres off the coast of Goldboro Nova Scotia, which is about three hours east of Halifax. It is estimated to have the capacity to produce 300-400 megawatts of energy per year with each wind turbine capable of producing 15 megawatts. For context, onshore turbines produce some between 1-5 megawatts of energy.
