Onboard the innovative floating tidal energy project in Nova Scotia — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:03a decade in development power production
2. 0:05in Grand passage has begun with tital
3. 0:07energy officially flowing onto Nova
4. 0:09scotia's power
5. 0:11grid The Weather Network was invited out
6. 0:14to tour the floating platform to get a
7. 0:16firsthand look at the next gen
8. 0:18technology just off Westport Nova Scotia
9. 0:21well it's pretty incredible to be out
10. 0:23here and hear that hum of the platforms
11. 0:26for myself now it's time to get a closer
12. 0:28look
13. 0:30this instream system is well Advanced
14. 0:32from previous iterations that attempted
15. 0:34to harness the power of the world's
16. 0:36highest tides in the Bay of fundi with
17. 0:38large structures lowered to the seabed
18. 0:40the difference is that we can get to
19. 0:42everything we're on it here now we're
20. 0:45we're we're here we can maintain it just
21. 0:46like a ship we can get to things we can
22. 0:48fix things and we don't need to go and
23. 0:50perform a really expensive operation to
24. 0:52pull it off the bottom of the seabed to
25. 0:53do that each of the six turbines on this
26. 0:56platform is rated for 70 KW but Heyman
27. 0:58says they will get scaled up with time
28. 1:01and get
29. 1:03larger now when all six turbines are
30. 1:06spinning at full capacity they're
31. 1:07producing 420 KW of power the average
32. 1:11Nova scotian Home needs 1 Kow during a
33. 1:14full moon you have your fastest flows
34. 1:17and that's when you can generate the
35. 1:18most energy if a nor Easter or hurricane
36. 1:20is imminent the turbines can be raised
37. 1:22out of the water with the platform
38. 1:26secured this is a demonstration but
39. 1:28since it works sustainable Marine is
40. 1:30actually getting paid for the power they
41. 1:31generate and that's 50 cents a kilowatt
42. 1:34hour an incentive for others to invest
43. 1:36as we navigate our way through climate
44. 1:38change this type of innovation is
45. 1:40fundamental uh to be supported by the
46. 1:43the provincial government for the next
47. 1:45generation of Nova scotians and
48. 1:46Canadians uh we're standing literally on
49. 1:50the future clean energy production when
50. 1:52you look at the current weather a bit
51. 1:54overcast not a great day to produce
52. 1:56solar energy it's not too windy either
53. 1:59but the tides are always predictable and
54. 2:02that's what makes this form of
55. 2:04sustainable energy different we're going
56. 2:06to start deploying at a like called
57. 2:08Force U which is the minus passage uh
58. 2:11and so up there uh the tides are are
59. 2:14even twice as strong almost as they are
60. 2:16here um so here at Grand passage this is
61. 2:18our test site if you like and it's a
62. 2:19fairly moderate resource whereas Force
63. 2:21they call the Everest of tidal energy
64. 2:24with tides of up to 10 knots the forces
65. 2:26and loads are challenging but the
66. 2:28company plans to continue press ing
67. 2:30forward what we know is that this is an
68. 2:31ultra low impact form of energy
69. 2:34Generation Um it's much better than the
70. 2:37status quo um than say burning coal for
71. 2:39the environment um and that's why we're
72. 2:41here doing it they're also monitoring
73. 2:43for any impacts on Marine Wildlife with
74. 2:46hundreds of hours of video footage of
75. 2:47the turbines reviewed so far they
76. 2:49haven't seen any adverse interactions
77. 2:51with fish in wildlife
78. 2:56[Music]