Canadian and United States Government Entities Collaborate on Tidal Power Studies

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). The Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia have joined forces with the United States Department of Energy (D.O.E.) and the states of Alaska, Maine, Massachusetts and Washington, the city of San Francisco, as well as the not-for-profit Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) (Palo Alto, California) in a feasibility study for new tidal driven power stations.

Maine, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia share the Bay of Fundy, which has the largest tide surges in the world. Nova Scotia Power, a subsidiary of Emera Corporation (TSX: EMA) (Halifax, Nova Scotia), currently has the second largest of three operational modern tidal power stations in the world. The 20-megawatt (MW) Annapolis Station (Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia), built in 1984, operates twice a day on tides of up to 21 feet, as they ebb back and forth in the Bay of Fundy.

It is estimated that large tidal plants in the Bay of Fundy’s Minas and Cumberland basins alone could generate more than all the power currently generated in the province. The studies that are taking place are due to be complete in March 2006. Since a tidal plant is a peaking power plant that operates with the flow of the tides, incoming and/or ebbing tides, the cost of construction and operation will be one of the main determining factors. Environmental impact on changes to marshlands and possible dangers to marine life will also factor in, but looking at the operation of the Annapolis Tidal Station, there has not been a great cause of trepidation, as only once in the 20 years of operations has the station needed to be shut down over environmental concerns (humped-back whale entering the Annapolis River through the stations sluice gates).

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