Trump's disdain for wind energy could create windfall for Nova Scotia, experts say
U.S. President Donald Trump's opposition to renewable energy could create a 'golden opportunity' for Nova Scotia's fledgling offshore wind energy industry, a leading international consulting firm says.
Aegir Insights, based in Denmark, recently presented a webinar that examined Premier Tim Houston's 10-year plan to license enough offshore turbines to produce 40 gigawatts of electricity. Even though the province requires only 2.4 GW, Houston's Wind West plan calls for selling excess power to the rest of Canada and, potentially, the United States.
Experts say such a project would require construction of about 4,000 offshore turbines that would generate as much electricity as China's offshore turbines produced last year.
Scott Urquhart, co-founder and CEO of Aegir Insights, said Wind West has grabbed the attention of the global offshore wind industry.
'The vision is to get Nova Scotia on the radar of big international investors,' Urquhart said Tuesday in an interview from Copenhagen. 'If the big players saw only a one gigawatt ambition, they won't show up.'
During last week's webinar, which attracted about 100 project developers, investors and government officials, Urquhart described Wind West as 'grand and ambitious,' but said it is underpinned by 'rational market fundamentals and economics.'
Is offshore wind Nova Scotia's greatest opportunity since the Age of Sail? Matthew McClearn
Founded in 2020, Aegir Insights describes itself as an intelligence provider that offers analytics and models for those investing in the offshore wind sector. Its database of projects spans 60 markets. Though he is based in Copenhagen, Urquhart has taken a keen interest in Wind West, having grown up in Cape Breton.
He told the webinar that the offshore wind industry has been hurt by rising costs and supply chain issues in recent years, but he said the industry appears poised for a recovery as interest rates fall and supply chain competition heats up.
Signe Sorensen, Aegir's regional lead in the Americas, said these encouraging trends have been overshadowed in the United States by Trump's decision to place a hold on offshore projects that have already received permits.
'Even as the global sector looks to be on the road to recovery, the U.S. is on a completely different path,' Sorensen told the webinar. 'And that matters a lot to Canada. One state's challenge could be another state's opportunity.'
In January, Trump announced he would halt leasing for wind projects while fast-tracking plans for more oil and gas production. That move has led to layoffs and stalled construction of wind turbines, which account for 10 per cent of U.S. electricity production — the largest source of renewable energy.
Renewable energy touted as force for sovereignty in Canada's north
Earlier this month, Trump doubled down on his opposition to wind power.
'The windmills are killing our country,' he said on June 12. 'The fields are littered with them — junk .... It's the greatest scam in history, the most expensive energy you can buy.'
Sorensen said the New England states and New York have been leading development of the offshore wind sector in the U.S., but Trump's opposition could stall the industry for the next four years.
'They need to find renewable sources to supply this energy,' Sorensen said. 'That's where large-scale Canadian wind could come into the picture, specifically Wind West .... There's a golden opportunity in this for Canada.'
Urquhart agreed.
'On the U.S. side, you just had a hole blown in the offshore wind sector and you have a whole bunch of supply chain people and developers who are standing around saying, 'Oh, no,'' he said in an interview. 'Now is the time to put your visionary ideas out. If you were to wait on something like this, you'll miss a window of opportunity.'
During his online presentation, Urquhart showed a colour-coded 'heat map' highlighting areas off Nova Scotia's coast where offshore wind development would be feasible.
'There are huge areas that could do tens-of-gigawatts of offshore wind,' he said, pointing to the sprawling, shallow banks around Sable Island and a long stretch closer to Nova Scotia's southern shoreline. 'There are several highly prospective locations.'
As well, Sorensen pointed to charts showing the New England states and New York are willing to pay top dollar for offshore wind energy.
'Nova Scotia could be competitive, pricewise,' she said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CBC
15 minutes ago
- CBC
Alberta premier intends to 'battle' injunction on transgender health-care law in court
After an Alberta judge granted a temporary injunction blocking a provincial law that would ban doctors from providing gender-affirming care to youth, Premier Danielle Smith said she intends to fight the decision in court. "The court had said that they think that there will be irreparable harm if the law goes ahead. I feel the reverse," Smith said on her weekend radio program, Your Province, Your Premier, on Saturday, a day after Justice Allison Kuntz of the Alberta Court of King's Bench handed down a written judgment on Bill 26. "We want to battle this out, and the way you do that is you go to the higher levels of court. If we were to impose the notwithstanding clause, everything would stop. We actually think that we've got a very solid case." Eric Adams, a professor at the University of Alberta's law faculty, said while he doesn't think the injunction is necessarily a clear sign that a constitutional case could be won, it does mean that lawyers will present strong and credible arguments against the legislation. "This isn't a final resolution of the constitutional issues — far from it," Adams said. "Those are ... possibly even still years away. But the question was: Can the law operate during that period where the legislation is being challenged? And this judge said that, on balance, she's electing to hold that law off until the court weighs in on its constitutionality." Bennett Jensen, legal director of 2SLGBTQ+ advocacy group Egale Canada and co-counsel in the case against the province, said getting the law temporarily put on hold has been a "tremendous relief." "I think we've been holding our breath until we got this decision," he said. Responding to the government's decision to challenge the injunction, Jensen said that "the province has been clear that it wants to act in the best interests of young people in the province.... Now we have a judicial decision finding on the basis of evidence that their law will cause irreparable harm to young people, so I think it merits a reconsideration." Notwithstanding clause a 'last resort' While the premier indicated the province will challenge the injunction through the court system at this time, she has previously said that using the notwithstanding clause is on the table as a "last resort." "It's certainly one of the tools in the toolkit that the province has been preparing the public for by signalling that they were prepared to use it," Adams said. "The government itself can't simply snap its fingers and have the notwithstanding clause appear. It's got to be put into the law itself." The provincial legislature is not scheduled to sit again until October, which means that the notwithstanding clause could not be included in the legislation until then, at the earliest, he said. The clause was first used in Alberta by then-premier Ralph Klein's Progressive Conservative government in 1998, then under Klein again in 2000. "The last time Alberta considered using the notwithstanding clause, the public reaction against [it] was fairly swift and they stepped back," Adams said. But the politics around the notwithstanding clause has changed a bit since then, he said, with it being used in Saskatchewan, Ontario and Quebec. Adams said Friday's ruling indicates the province's fight for Bill 26 won't be an "easy walk through the park," as there are serious constitutional issues to be decided. "We'll see ... whether or not the government has to contemplate whether or not they want to take this out of the hands of judges entirely, because they might not like the direction this litigation is headed in." WATCH | Bill 26 faces legal challenge from Canadian Medical Association: Canadian Medical Association takes Alberta to court over Bill 26 1 month ago Duration 2:14 A law that prohibits doctors from using puberty blockers and hormone therapy on youth under the age of 16 is facing another legal challenge.
Canada News.Net
17 minutes ago
- Canada News.Net
US terminating trade talks with Canada Trump
The American president has labeled Ottawas digital services tax an attack on the US US President Donald Trump has announced the termination of all trade talks with Canada in light of Ottawa's tax on digital services, which he called a "adirect and blatant attack on our country." Relations between the neighbors began to sour when Trump imposed 25% tariffs on Canadian goods in February soon after taking office. Ottawa responded with reciprocal tariffs. Trump later temporarily suspended the tariffs, expressing a willingness to negotiate individually favorable terms for US businesses with the countries that he had targeted for tariffs. Trump has long accused Canada of taking unfair advantage of the US and has on several occasions suggested that it should become the 51st US state, arguing that Washington effectively subsidizes Canada's economy. In a post on Truth Social on Friday, Trump stated that "Canada, a very difficult Country to TRADE with... has just announced that they are putting a Digital Services Tax on our American Technology Companies, which is a direct and blatant attack on our Country." "Based on this egregious Tax, we are hereby terminating ALL discussions on Trade with Canada, effective immediately," the US president proclaimed. He added that his government would notify Ottawa of the "Tariff that they will be paying to do business with the United States of America within the next seven day period." Later on Friday, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney told reporters that his country would "continue to conduct these complex negotiations in the best interests of Canadians." However, he noted that he had yet to speak with Trump about the issue. Canada's digital services tax, enacted in June 2024, requires companies providing digital services in the country and earning more than CAD 20 million ($14.5 million) in revenue from Canadian sources to pay a 3% tax on their profits. The first payments are due on Monday. According to Canadian media, US tech giants such as Amazon, Apple, Airbnb, Google, Meta, and Uber are expected to pay approximately $2 billion by the end of July. The tax is retroactive to January 1, 2022. In March, Carney described Trump's tariffs as "unjustified" and stated that "Canada will win" the trade war with the US. He vowed that Canada "will never, ever, in any way, shape, or form, be part of the United States."
Canada News.Net
18 minutes ago
- Canada News.Net
US terminating trade talks with Canada
The American president has labeled Ottawa's digital services tax an "attack" on the US US President Donald Trump has announced the termination of all trade talks with Canada in light of Ottawa's tax on digital services, which he called a "adirect and blatant attack on our country." Relations between the neighbors began to sour when Trump imposed 25% tariffs on Canadian goods in February soon after taking office. Ottawa responded with reciprocal tariffs. Trump later temporarily suspended the tariffs, expressing a willingness to negotiate individually favorable terms for US businesses with the countries that he had targeted for tariffs. Trump has long accused Canada of taking unfair advantage of the US and has on several occasions suggested that it should become the 51st US state, arguing that Washington effectively subsidizes Canada's economy. In a post on Truth Social on Friday, Trump stated that "Canada, a very difficult Country to TRADE with... has just announced that they are putting a Digital Services Tax on our American Technology Companies, which is a direct and blatant attack on our Country." "Based on this egregious Tax, we are hereby terminating ALL discussions on Trade with Canada, effective immediately," the US president proclaimed. He added that his government would notify Ottawa of the "Tariff that they will be paying to do business with the United States of America within the next seven day period." Later on Friday, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney told reporters that his country would "continue to conduct these complex negotiations in the best interests of Canadians." However, he noted that he had yet to speak with Trump about the issue. Canada's digital services tax, enacted in June 2024, requires companies providing digital services in the country and earning more than CAD 20 million ($14.5 million) in revenue from Canadian sources to pay a 3% tax on their profits. The first payments are due on Monday. According to Canadian media, US tech giants such as Amazon, Apple, Airbnb, Google, Meta, and Uber are expected to pay approximately $2 billion by the end of July. The tax is retroactive to January 1, 2022. In March, Carney described Trump's tariffs as "unjustified" and stated that "Canada will win" the trade war with the US. He vowed that Canada "will never, ever, in any way, shape, or form, be part of the United States."
