Nova’s Scotia’s government announced revocation April 3 of the marine renewable-electricity license issued to Cape Sharp Tidal Venture.
The company no longer has the financial ability to deliver the project, which breaches the terms of its licence under the Marine Renewable-energy Act. Without a licence, the company is also in violation of its feed-in tariff approval. As a result, that agreement has also been revoked. The company is now required to retrieve its turbine in the Minas Basin. If that does not happen in a reasonable timeframe, government will begin the process of accessing the security that remains in place.
The government says the company’s turbine continues to be monitored and currently presents no danger to marine life or the environment.
A background summary by Aird & Berlis notes that Cape Sharp Tidal has been a joint venture between Ireland-based OpenHydro and Nova Scotia Power affiliate Emera, created to deploy two 2MW tidal turbines in Minas Passage at the Fundy Ocean Research Centre for Energy (FORCE) test site. The project was intended to test the viability of new in-stream tidal energy technology. Nova Scotia issued the marine renewable-electricity licence to Cape Sharp Tidal in May 2018, permitting the company to (among other things) construct and install and operate in-stream tidal energy generators at the FORCE site.