What New Tax Credits And Giant Power Poles Mean For Saint John’s Wind Turbine Project
SAINT JOHN — Ottawa’s fall economic update has set a path for Canadian utility companies that are going green and Saint John Energy says it’s well-positioned to heed that call.
The Government of Canada announced on November 3 a “refundable tax credit equal to 30 percent of the capital cost of investments” in technologies like solar, tidal, small modular nuclear reactors, and wind energy (like the Burchill Windfarm currently under construction outside of Lorneville).
Saint John Energy is actively investing in green energy, not only partnering with Natural Forces on the Burchill Windfarm project but also building new infrastructure to bring that energy into the city.
Two large silver monopoles sit astride the Saint John River, recently installed as part of a system of distribution line to move the 42 Megawatts of green energy that will be created by the ten turbines at Burchill. The energy generated at the site will comprise 15 percent of Saint John’s energy consumption.
“We are building a 17-kilometer distribution line from the Burchill wind farm to our substation at 90 Paradise Row,” says Jessica DeLong, the manager of stakeholder relations for Saint John Energy.
The distribution lines will follow King William Road in Lorneville to the TransCanada Highway, all the way to Riverview Drive in Saint John West. There, they will hit the first of the two 95-foot-high monopoles atop the cliff above the river. The lines, which had to meet height guidelines to not interfere with marine traffic in the water, will cross the river to the second pole at Chesley Drive, by the Reversing Falls lookout point, right next to the Memory Vessel art installation.
“This is the first distribution line we’ve had crossing the river,” says DeLong. Previously, the power Saint John Energy bought from NB Power was delivered by that utilities’ lines. This new partnership, for the Burchill Windfarm with Natural Forces and the Neqotkuk First Nation, required that new infrastructure be built.
The lines then make their way down Douglas Avenue to Main Street and east to the Paradise Row substation. The build will involve replacing the poles on Douglas Avenue with new, slightly taller ones.
The wires themselves aren’t up yet but will be later this month. An engineering team will shepherd the lines across the river using a drone and a guidewire.
The turbine blades have already arrived at the Burchill site, shipped from Portugal to the port of Bayside outside of St. Andrews.
The utility has also been preparing other parts of its infrastructure over the past few months in anticipation of the project. There have been transformer upgrades, the creation of brand-new substations at Burchill and Paradise Row, and the installation of a Tesla battery and other new batteries at the Somerset substation.
DeLong says a lot of effort has been spent making sure Saint John Energy’s systems are ready for that energy to arrive.
The federal government has made two significant contributions to the utility’s world-recognized Smart Grid system. In August, it invested more than $800,000 in the Smart Grid Innovation Network to help companies like Saint John Energy “enable further knowledge sharing around innovation required to decarbonize Canada’s utility sector” via a Smart Energy Scorecard.
In September, ACOA provided $620,000 to improve the Saint John Energy smart grid’s capacity for data modelling, to assist with cost and emission reductions.
DeLong says the utility surveyed its customers recently and support for renewable energy has jumped from 86 percent to 95 percent in the past four years.
“Change is hard but everyone is celebrating and is absolutely supporting this project,” she says of Burchill. “And we’re really, really happy about that.”
Saint John Energy estimates that, when at full capacity, the project will save 43,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions every year. That’s the equivalent of taking 13,000 cars off the road.
“Now that the federal government is asking us to be net zero by 2050, with all the plans in by 2030, that’s soon for businesses,” DeLong says. “It’s something that we’re definitely working on to make sure that we’re helping our community get there.”
Alex Graham is a Huddle reporter in Saint John. Send her your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].