N.S. gets 19 bids for wind projects
The province’s renewable electricity administrator has 19 wind projects from which to choose, an Energy Department official said Thursday.
“There’s a very strong interest,” Bruce Cameron, the province’s director of sustainable and renewable energy, told a Canadian Wind Energy Association luncheon in Halifax.
“We think we’re going to get some very good bids there.”
Wednesday was the deadline for developers to submit their bids to the independent administrator, a Massachusetts-based consultant.
John Dalton of Power Advisory LLC has said he’ll make a decision by July 19.
A further 10 days have been set aside for contracts to be finalized before a public announcement is made in early August.
The province wants to add 300 gigawatts of renewable electricity to the Nova Scotia Power grid, starting in 2015.
Some developers have said they expect up to four or five wind farms to be approved.
Deputy Energy Minister Murray Coolican said department officials are expecting the competition to result in “very attractive” energy prices.
“We’re really expecting that those who have bid have taken advantage of lower turbine prices, low financing costs and economies of scale, and are passing along those advantages,” he told an audience that included some of the bidders.