Province Points to Wood as NS Power Source

New regulations under the Electricity Act require Nova Scotia Power to burn more wood.

Natural Resources Minister, Tory Rushton, announced the change yesterday. The  new standard requires the utility to purchase 135,000 megawatt hours of readily available renewable energy over the next three years.

Renewable sources include wind, solar, biomass and hydro, but the readily available energy, known as biomass, is now laying on the ground across Nova Scotia as debris from Hurricane Fiona.

Rushton says, “Biomass is renewable, readily available and burns cleaner than coal.” The Minister says, “Adding more sustainably harvested biomass for a few years is a small thing we can do in the short term to bring more renewables onto the grid while longer term solutions are built.”

The regulations prohibit cutting whole trees to generate electricity. They only allow biomass in the form of low-quality residual wood and chips that are leftover from sustainable timber harvesting and primary processing.

Suppliers will have to restart harvesting operations and face increased costs for fuel, so the utility will be required to pay suppliers an additional $30 per megawatt hour beyond existing contracts.

The current standard requires Nova Scotia Power to generate at least 40 per cent of electricity from renewables.

Nova Scotia Power will likely reach about 70 per cent renewables by 2026 with reliable hydro electricity through the Maritime Link and new onshore wind projects.

The renewable electricity standard will increase to 80 per cent in 2030.

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