Tag Archives: Cape Sharp Tidal
Clock ticking on Bay of Fundy tidal turbine removal
Meanwhile fishermen who work along the Minas Passage want the turbine out of the water. – OpenHydro Technologies Canada Ltd. has a month to find someone who wants to pay to lift a broken 1,300-tonne turbine out of the Minas Passage. Once the stay of proceedings granted Wednesday by Nova Scotia Supreme Court Justice Michael Wood expires in December, OpenHydro’s creditors can swoop in. They won’t find much – according to court filings the company only has two major assets. >click to read<16:42
Dolphin, porpoise found dead near Minas Basin turbine site
A dolphin and a porpoise have been found dead along the shore of the Minas Passage since the installation of OpenHydro’s instream tidal turbine late last month. The dolphin was found along the shore near Highland Village at the end of July and on Aug. 4 the porpoise was found dead near Bass River.,, Meanwhile Fisheries and Oceans Canada has declared that the 1,000-tonne turbine in the Minas Passage is now in violation of its special dispensation under the Fisheries Act because monitoring equipment meant to evaluate whether it kills marine animals isn’t operational. The turbine has been spinning but not generating power on the floor of the Minas Passage. >click to read<09:57
Openhydro receivership leaves murky waters
It’s a tall order for a sheriff: arrest a turbine control centre at the bottom of the. But that’s what a warrant filed with the federal court on behalf of a German shipping company calls on them to do. “It is unusual to have a warrant on a cargo 37 metres below the sea’s surface,” said Marc Isaacs, the attorney who filed the claim on behalf of BBC Chartering Carriers GMBH & Co.KG. “We will have to figure that one out.” There’s a lot of figuring out left to be done as a result of the 1,000 tonne tidal turbine placed on the floor of the Minas Passage by the Ireland-based OpenHydro group of companies that was placed into receivership a week later. >click to read<17:36
Ownerless Bay of Fundy turbine operating without fish kill monitoring gear
Even before Cape Sharp Tidal, owned by Irish company OpenHydro and Emera, placed it on the floor of the Minas Passage two weeks ago and OpenHydro was placed in receivership days later, the 10-billion tonnes of seawater hauled into the narrowing between Cape Split and Cape Chignecto was already tainted by bad blood. “The opposition isn’t about just whether it kills fish because other things kill fish too — fishermen kill fish,” said Mary McPhee, former facilities operator for the Fundy Ocean Research Centre for Energy, the government-funded tidal test site commonly known as FORCE. “What fishermen want is for the tidal power people to be treated in the same manner as they are. They want the law to be applied equally. So if a fishery has a quota, why can’t tidal power have a quota?” >click to read<08:47
“That turbine was put down there in bad faith.” – Cape Sharp Tidal owner files for bankruptcy in Ireland
A week after a massive tidal turbine was placed in the Minas Passage, its owners have filed for bankruptcy. Local contractors, marine service companies, motels, fishermen and other business people are owed an undetermined amount of money. OpenHydro owns 97 per cent of Cape Sharp Tidal, with the remaining three percent owned by Emera, Nova Scotia Power’s parent company.,, Fishermen claim they were told the turbine would not be installed at the Force site in the Minas Passage until the close of the lobster season at the end of July. “They used all these local resources, hired all these local business people, drove right over all that local lobster gear and they never intended to pay nobody,” said Darren Porter, spokesman for the Fundy United Federation, a fishermen’s organization. One contractor, who didn’t want his named used, estimated that OneHydro owes “tens of millions of dollars” to local companies. >click to read<22:11
Bay of Fundy Fishermen trying to overturn approval of tidal turbine
A fishermen’s group has asked the Nova Scotia Supreme Court to set aside provincial approval of a massive tidal turbine in the Bay of Fundy, saying the decision was based on poor scientific data. The 1,000-tonne underwater generator was installed on the floor of the Minas Passage in November, but the Bay of Fundy Inshore Fishermen’s Association has said the test project should be put on hold to ensure the bay’s productive ecosystem is not harmed. David Coles, the lawyer representing the 175-member association, told the court Wednesday that Environment Minister Margaret Miller overstepped her authority last June because the company behind the project — Cape Sharp Tidal — did not submit enough scientific data about the state of the bay prior to installation. “The minister was required to consider certain things, and they’re just not in the record,” Coles told Justice Heather Robertson. Read the story here 14:07
Tidal turbine in Bay of Fundy generating the most expensive electricity ever produced in Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia hailed North America’s first successful grid-connected tidal turbine Tuesday with a ceremonial flipping of a switch at a substation outside Parrsboro. The electricity being generated is some of the most expensive ever produced in Nova Scotia, costing $530 per megawatt hour versus the current average of $60 per megawatt hour. Not everyone is pleased. Protestors stationed outside the event were a reminder that not everyone is convinced. Some fishermen in the Bay of Fundy have gone to court to try and reverse the provincial permit that allowed the deployment. They say it poses a threat to the lobster fishery, a claim the province and Cape Sharp Tidal dismiss. Read the rest here 16:14
Cape Sharp Tidal installs first of two 2MW turbines in Minas Passage
Several months after receiving approval from Nova Scotia’s Department of Environment to deploy two 16-metre, 1,000 tonne turbines in the Bay of Fundy’s Minas Passage, Cape Sharp Tidal has finally submerged the first of the OpenHydro Open-Centre 2MW turbines at the Fundy Ocean Research Centre for Energy (FORCE), near Parrsboro. Cape Sharp Tidal plans to connect the turbine to the power grid in the coming days via FORCE’s subsea cable, which during the next several weeks will deliver Nova Scotia’s first in-stream tidal energy to the province’s power grid. The turbine was towed on a barge from West Bay to the FORCE site on Monday morning, and then lowered to the sea floor in a four-hour operation during an ebb tide. The deployment follows months of delay for environmental review and an injunction request filed by the Bay of Fundy Inshore Fishermen’s Association, challenging the approval of Nova Scotia’s Environment Minister over concerns regarding the project’s possible impacts on sealife. Read the story here 18:24
Bay of Fundy tidal energy battle heads to court Thursday
The Nova Scotia government and a company attempting to deploy two tidal turbines in the Bay of Fundy have joined forces to fight a move by a fishermen’s association to block the venture. The Bay of Fundy Inshore Fishermen’s Association is scheduled to appear Thursday in Nova Scotia Supreme Court to ask for a stay on an approval that will allow Cape Sharp Tidal Ventures to install two 16-metre-wide turbines at the bottom of the Minas Passage. Cape Sharp Tidal is a partnership between Halifax-based Emera, parent company of Nova Scotia Power, and French-owned Open Hydro. The province and Cape Sharp Tidal want the court to dismiss the application. Read the story here 09:57
Bay of Fundy tidal turbines on hold over environmental concerns
Plans for the installation of a tidal turbine on the bottom of the ocean floor in the Bay of Fundy, N.S., have been put on hold. The company, Cape Sharp Tidal and the provincial government have postponed the project. Fishermen and scientists are concerned about the impact the turbines could have on an important and diverse marine ecosystem. Lobster fisherman Colin Sproul of the Bay of Fundy Inshore Fishermen’s Association is against installing the tidal turbines. He tells The Current‘s Anna Maria Tremonti why stopping this project is important to him. “The reason for our involvement in this is to preserve our way of life and our culture. The bay has sustained us for 400 years. My family has five generations of involvement in this industry and we will not see it washed it away by corporate efficiency and greed.” Audio report, Listen, read the rest here 08:01
Fundy Tidal tests on hold, more consultations to be held before turbine launch
Cape Sharp Tidal has put the brakes on the deployment of its first turbine in the Bay of Fundy, originally set for this weekend so it can meet with concerned community members. Sarah Dawson, community relations manager with Cape Sharp Tidal told the Chronicle Herald Thursday that despite extensive outreach activities, there are still stakeholders in the region that feel like they have not been fully heard. “We are taking a pause to. . .hear from those who don’t feel like they have an opportunity. It’s important that we listen and we learn and we always learn from these sorts of engagements,” Dawson said in an interview. (then they’ll stick it in!) Dawson wouldn’t say how long they will be delaying the deployment. “It’s a positive step,” said Minas Basin weir fisherman Darren Porter. Read the rest here 19:05
