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SYDNEY, N.S. — Several municipal and business leaders from Cape Breton are looking at wind energy opportunities as a way to boost the island’s future economy, right from the source country for wind energy.
Cape Breton Regional Municipality Mayor Amanda McDougall-Merrill, Port Hawkesbury Mayor Brenda Chisholm-Beaton and Richmond County Warden Amanda Mombourquette joined a registered 59 Canadians that took part in this year’s WindEurope wind energy conference at Copenhagen.
This year’s conference featured discussions on every aspect of wind energy today: supply chains, permitting, grids, sustainability, finance, resource assessment and more — including input from policy, industry and academic leaders.
“Before the conference started, on the front end of this trip, our group – myself, the deputy mayor, our economic development officers from the (Cape Breton) Partnership, Kathleen (Yurchesyn) from Novaporte — went to the port of Esbjerg to get a feel for the place,” McDougall-Merrill said on the phone Thursday from the Denmark capital, just as the three-day conference wrapped up.
“Size-wise, it’s very similar to CBRM — and with a remarkably and eerily similar post-industrial history to Cape Breton. It went through the downfall of the fisheries, oil and gas, and now it has completely transformed into renewables, specifically wind energy.”
McDougall-Merrill said seeing first-hand what port development did to that community secured in her mind what Novaporte’s wind marshalling project, announced last month, could bring to potential economic prosperity to the CBRM. Novaporte’s first signing was a concession agreement with Blue Water Shipping, a global provider of all logistics services in modern supply chain management, which started in Esbjerg back in 1972.
“Being there, we had an amazing opportunity with Karsten Rieder, CEO of Business Esbjerg, who took us around to really understand what has happened in the past 10 years in that community, and explained what was to come, which was even more remarkable,” McDougall-Merrill said.
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‘Reaching out’
“In the Scandinavia area, they are the leaders of this industry. And they are now the ones reaching out to us and saying, ‘OK, world; time to come along.’”
During the March announcement in Membertou, Novaporte CEO Albert Barbusci said his firm believes offshore wind is considered to be the fastest-growing sector of maritime shipping and could double in size within the next 10 years.
“There’s no one specific port that could handle what’s to come at us,” McDougall-Merrill said. “We heard loud and clear from the ports in Amsterdam and North Sea ports, they’ve created coalitions and networks of ports to come up with the industry they have here.”
Which is how McDougall-Merrill said she sees the proposed Novaporte wind marshalling project tying in with two green hydrogen and ammonia projects proposed for the Strait area — one from EverWind Fuels, a second from Bear Head Energy — further championed by a task force under the leadership of Mombourquette and Chisholm-Beaton.
“It shows how passionately and prepared we are to help our communities move forward and grow and be part of this green transition,” McDougall-Merrill said. “Because this is the way of the future. And if we weren’t here, it would be a big missed opportunity, which would be way more detrimental.”
The WindEurope trip, she said, came courtesy of an invite from the province’s Natural Resources and Renewables department. The Cape Breton contingent also included CBRM Deputy Mayor James Edwards and Membertou Development Corp. vice-president Jennifer Deleskie.
“James and I have been completely upfront with council members, and we shared our itineraries to ensure that they understood that this is not just about us showing and going to a couple of conferences,” said McDougall-Merrill, adding she’s aware of some negative social media commentary surrounding the trip.
“It is my job as mayor to find opportunities, to create relationships and to bring projects to our community. I’ve seen things like, ‘Why not just do a Zoom meeting?’ But really there is a lot to be said about doing things face-to-face.”
Networking
For Mombourquette and Chisholm-Beaton, who also serve as co-chairs with the Strait of Canso Offshore Wind Task Force, attending WindEurope furthers their education, networking and possible opportunities that could bolster their resolve to see offshore wind energy projects come to fruition.
“It’s exciting to hear about what other developers are doing in Europe, the U.K., certainly other global offshore wind projects that are happening,” said Chisholm-Beaton. “But also we’re seeing the offshore wind ecosystem looks like, what are the necessary port assets required to feed into that ecosystem to support that emerging industry.”
Plus, she said, given how new the industry would be for Cape Breton, there would need to be an educational component brought in.
“There could some opportunity to expand into campuses — such as the NSCC Strait Area Campus and Nautical Institute
— and universities to be able to accommodate this kind of new training and academic specialties around offshore wind,” she said.
‘Planning now’
Mombourquette said her takeaway from the conference was how throughout Denmark’s 30-year history in the wind energy industry, “they’ve learned a lot of the lessons the hard way — everything from making sure that turbine blades are recyclable and can be put into new production of either more turbines or other products,” she said. “It’s that whole idea of a circular economy.
“That’s something that has evolved from the lessons that they’ve learned. And we can pick up what they’ve already done, and they in turn are excited to share that with us. They’re very proud of what they have achieved.”
With the federal government establishing a plan for Canada to reach its emissions reduction target of 40 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030 and net-zero emissions by 2050, “we also want to make sure we’re part of the solution to a greener fuels economy so that we’re not relying on fossil fuels,” Mombourquette said.
“So we need to start planning right now to ensure that we have the energy secure by the time that date comes.”
Ian Nathanson is a political reporter at the Cape Breton Post. Follow him on Twitter at @CBPost_Ian.
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