Fiona Power Failures Fuel Interest In Alternatives
HALIFAX — There were more than 500,000 customers without power in the Maritimes following post-tropical storm Fiona and people are still waiting for it to be restored days after the storm ended.
The Halifax Home Depot reports that demand for generators has been “enormous” and that there have been hundreds of calls for generators from across Nova Scotia over the past three days, some from as far away as Sydney.
In anticipation of Fiona, Home Depot scoured its warehouses looking for generators to send down to Nova Scotia. Most of that stock is now gone.
Local startup finds its time to Shine
Meanwhile, a Halifax startup that has been developing a solution for small, short-term power needs, has seen interest in its product spike.
“Emergency preparedness is actually one of the top use-cases for our product, after outdoor enthusiast use cases,” said Vanessa Ferguson, head of business development for Aurea Technologies, which makes the Shine wind turbine.
The company saw an uptick in interest in its product leading up to Fiona as three times more people than normal visited its website.
“We’ve definitely noticed more traffic to the website and people reaching out, inquiring about our product. I think just with climate change and the frequency and intensity of storms so many more people are thinking about emergency preparedness,” Ferguson said.
Aurea’s portable wind turbine can generate enough power for four phone charges by harnessing the power of the wind. The battery is also strong enough to power tablets, speakers and smartwatches.
“We didn’t realize how large the [emergency power] market was. We initially designed it as an outdoor product for camping, off-grid living, van life… Then we just started to get more and more interest in it as backup power, so now we’re also trying to tailor our marketing to that,” Ferguson said.
Shine has been getting international attention as its first round of products is slated to head out the door in November to funders in its Indiegogo project launch.
The company is also expanding its reach over to Europe in the weeks ahead.
Solar solutions
At the Solar Bros., a solar panel installation company in Halifax, owner Jamie Colter has been fielding his fair share of calls from customers interested in alternative energy sources.
“Every time you get a storm or any kind of outage, you always get an increase in calls. People wanting to get generator panels and that sort of thing,” he said. “So it certainly does drive the sales.”
Colter says that while getting a solar panel is a great way to save money and help out the environment, they don’t tend to provide much relief in situations like the one Maritimers find themselves in now because users are usually still connected to the grid.
“You can’t power your home on solar without the grid. Your system needs to see [electricity] all the time to put power into your house or onto the grid. There are some ways that you can still use it but they’re few and far between. “
“If you’re completely off-grid, you’re good. But that involves usually a generator and a battery bank and solar,“ Colter said. He added those systems can run between $50,000 and $100,000 to install.
The interest in solar and other types of alternative energy is a big investment and commitment. It seems urgent at times like these but as things return to normal, people lose interest.
“Once things die down people kind of forget about it,” he said.
Alex Graham is a Huddle reporter in Saint John. Send her your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].