Nova Scotia Drops Cape Sharp Tidal Turbine Project

The Nova Scotia government has revoked the marine renewable-electricity licence issued to Cape Sharp Tidal Venture.

OpenHydro's tidal turbine deployed in Bay of Fundy in July 2018 (Photo: Cape Sharp Tidal)

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, the government said in a statement.

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 As a result, that agreement has also been revoked.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 company’s turbine continues to be monitored and it presents no danger to marine life or the environment.

Cape Sharp Tidal was a joint venture between OpenHydro, a Naval Energies company, and Emera. On July 26, 2018, Naval Energies filed a petition with the High Court in Ireland for the liquidation of OpenHydro Group and OpenHydro Technologies.

Two days before the petition, a 2MW tidal turbine, deployed by Cape Sharp Tidal in Minas Passage, at the Fundy Ocean Research Center for Energy (FORCE) site, was connected to the Nova Scotia electricity grid.

This was the second grid-connected tidal turbine to be deployed in the bay by Cape Sharp Tidal after the similar feat was achieved with the first demonstration turbine in November 2016.