Trio of towns aims for clean break from Nova Scotia
In a significant move towards energy independence, the towns of Antigonish, Berwick and Mahone Bay are investing heavily in generating green energy. In the process, they’re outpacing the Nova Scotia Power monopoly in reaching the province’s renewable energy targets while focusing on community needs over corporate profit.
These municipalities are among the few in the province that own electric utilities. Their partnership, the Alternate Resource Energy Authority (AREA), launched in 2014, aims not only to meet the province’s renewable energy targets but also to offer households lower power costs and greater control over their energy future.
“I think if you talk to people in town now, they feel they get better service and less downtime (than when NSP handled maintenance),” says Kelly Wilson, vice chair of AREA, and councillor for Mahone Bay. He attributes the reliability improvements to utility staff’s better vegetation management.
AREA’s renewable energy production is centred around a 10-turbine wind farm in Ellershouse, West Hants Regional Municipality. It generates 23.5 megawatts of power, providing about 40 per cent of the total energy needs for each community.
Surplus energy can be sold to neighbouring utilities like River-port Electric Light Commission and Lunenburg Electric Utility, Wilson says. However, when weather conditions are unfavourable to wind or solar energy production, AREA purchases more power from Nova Scotia Power and resells it to community members.
The wind farm’s ownership model is based on the initial financial contributions of each municipality: Antigonish has a 63 per cent stake, Berwick 27 per cent and Mahone Bay 10 per cent. The project also secured $51 million in funding from various other sources.
In exchange for leasing land from West Hants, AREA committed to supporting local causes through the Ellershouse Wind Farm Society. The society has funded community projects such as summer camps, skating sessions and breakfast and lunch programs at West Hants schools.
AREA has seen some early success, meeting the provincial government’s renewable energy goals ahead of schedule, says Berwick Mayor Mike Trinacty. The government had set a province-wide target of generating 25 per cent of Nova Scotia’s electricity needs from renewable sources by 2020, 40 per cent by 2030, and achieving net-zero emissions by 2035. AREA reached the 2020 target two years sooner, passing that milestone in 2018.
“We wanted to be in the lead on the whole (green goals) thing,” Wilson says.
Despite these achievements, Wilson acknowledged AREA still faces challenges, particularly regarding the cost of using Nova Scotia Power’s transmission network. The group hopes to start negotiations to renegotiate wheel fees — the charges for transporting its clean energy on the grid — and other associated costs soon.
In addition to the wind farm, Berwick, Antigonish and Mahone Bay have begun installing solar gardens. Berwick Mayor Mike Trinacty says this will provide long-term savings as energy from those projects doesn’t need to be transported elsewhere.
Berwick, which has about 12,000 solar panels, began generating renewable energy in 1921 when it acquired a hydro dam. Today, the town derives eight per cent of its energy from the dam and 14 percent from its solar farm. In total, 62 per cent of its energy needs are met through renewable sources.
AREA as a whole generates 40 per cent of its energy from wind, roughly 16 per cent from solar, and purchases the remaining 44 per cent from Nova Scotia Power.
“We are confident our power rates will be significantly lower than Nova Scotia Power’s over time,” Wilson says, emphasizing AREA’s focus on long-term, community-driven energy solutions rather than on short-term profits.
Trinacty echoed this, saying, “We’re not profit-driven, so we have more long-term control over our power rates — that’s one of the big benefits.”
Though the idea is still developing, Trinacty hopes to integrate more technology into the system to help community members better manage their energy use. Through smart meters and enhanced data, households could be informed when excess power is being generated, enabling them to run energy-intensive appliances like dishwashers at times when it is cheaper to do so.
“That’s the kind of direct input (we’d like) households to have on their consumption of power and use of renewable energy,” he says.
He also says AREA’s partners hope to explore long-term solutions for storing excess power produced on sunny and windy days, further reducing reliance on Nova Scotia Power.
To find out more about the 100% municipally-owned Alternate Resource Energy Authority (AREA), check out their website areans.ca
