First-Of-Its-Kind Renewable Energy Project Approved In Nova Scotia
HALIFAX—A first-of-its-kind project could soon shake up the renewable energy market in Nova Scotia, providing consumers with an alternative to Nova Scotia Power.
October 27, the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board granted Roswall Developments a license to sell renewable power directly to Nova Scotians.
The license comes through the province’s Renewable to Retail program, which was created in 2015 to encourage renewable energy development in Nova Scotia.
Roswall is the first company licensed through the program.
The license allows the company to move forward with its plans to create a 33.6-megawatt wind farm in Queens County.
Daniel Roscoe, the managing director of Roswall Developments, says the company hopes to start building the farm next year and sell power from it in 2023.
Roswall hasn’t yet secured a place for the project but has applied to lease Crown land. The company has also completed several consultations, studies, and permit applications in preparation for construction.
Through the proposed wind farm, Roswall hopes to sell renewable energy to 15 industrial and commercial customers, as well as about 800 residential customers.
This is significant because it would provide consumers with an alternative to Nova Scotia Power, the crown corporation most Nova Scotians are forced to buy their electricity from.
Roscoe has argued in the past the Renewable to Retail program was too restrictive, however, a “confluence of economic and environmental factors” have now made a project like Roswall’s possible.
“First of all, the cost of fossil fuels has gone up significantly over time and the cost of renewables has come down. And I think that opens up the door for [this kind of project],” he said.
“In an era of climate targets, of ESG goals, of net-zero by 2025, or 2030, there’s a demand for clean energy that just wasn’t there before.”
Roscoe says most people realized long ago that renewable energy was the future. Now, it’s quickly becoming the most cost-efficient option as well.
“We’ve crossed the threshold. While in the short term, with Covid and supply chain issues, renewables are a little unpredictable, so are fossil fuels—and to a greater extent. Renewables have a pretty long track record of cost reduction and fossil fuels are the inverse of that. Now that they’re crossing over… we don’t see it going back.”
Roscoe also pointed out that Roswall’s service mcould help attract green-minded businesses to Nova Scotia. Many companies have committed to running on renewable energy and might not have previoulsy found that in the province. A retail renewable energy option could help combat that.
However, there’s still no guarantee Roswall’s project will get off the ground.
The Nova Scotia Utility Review Board pointed out in its ruling that retail sales of a physical, 100 percent renewable electricity product would be a completely new service in Atlantic Canada.
It’s an exciting prospect, but it’s also a risky one.
The board said Roswall “would need to make significant investment in understanding this market, the technical and financial applications, and the optimization of various assets and resources on an ongoing basis.”
It will also have to grow its team and “seek strategic partnerships to make its proposed model successful.”
Roswall was granted its license through a subsidiary, numbered company it only recently created. Because of that, it had no financial statements to present to the review board, only projections.
“Given the number of assumptions upon which these [projections] are based, and the fact that the generation facility does not yet exist and there are no customers, there is a fair degree of uncertainty in these projections,” the board wrote.
“Although the Board concludes the Company presented a reasonable business model in its application and supporting information, it is clear it is contingent upon many assumptions. While the Board is under no illusion that all the assumptions and forecasts will turn out exactly as estimated by the Applicant, the approval is based on the model presented to the Board in this application.”