Article 1: Massive tidal turbine in Bay of
Fundy generating electricity for 1st time
Turbine can power up to 500 homes — but the electricity is some of the costliest ever produced in N.S.
By Paul Withers, CBC News Posted: Nov 22, 2016 1:34 PM AT Last Updated: Nov 24, 2016 5:42 PM
Nova Scotia hailed North America's first successful grid-connected tidal turbine Tuesday with a
ceremonial flipping of a switch at a substation outside Parrsboro.
"We are ushering in a new era and taking an unprecedented step towards a lower carbon future," said
Energy Minister Michel Samson.
The 1,000-tonne, five-storey turbine was lowered onto the floor of the Minas Passage earlier this month. It
was quickly connected to land via a subsea cable and started producing electricity almost right away.
The turbine generates two megawatts of electricity — enough to power 500 homes. The deployment is
part of a large-scale demonstration project to test the technology in the powerful tides of the Bay of Fundy
over the next several years.
The first deployment in 2009 failed within days when the turbine blades were destroyed by the
powerful tides.
Tidal power 8 times more expensive
This 1,000-tonne tidal turbine is now generating power from the
Bay of Fundy. (Andrew Vaughan/The Canadian Press)
The electricity being generated is some of the most expensive
ever produced in Nova Scotia, costing $530 per megawatt hour
versus the current average of $60 per megawatt hour.
Nova Scotia Power customers are paying the cost under a rate set through a provincial initiative to
encourage the development of renewable energy.
Executives with OpenHydro and Nova Scotia Power's parent company, Emera, said refinements in
technology and standardization will eventually bring the cost down.
"We think it will take about five years for commercialization," said Thierry Kalanquin of OpenHydro.
The two companies have formed Cape Sharp Tidal to deploy this and one other turbine. Both companies
stressed that monitoring has shown there has been no harm to fish or mammals in the bay since the
turbine was installed.
"We have demonstrated that we have absolutely no environmental impact. Zero," Kalanquin said
Tuesday, adding that "there is no fish going through the turbine right now."
Not everyone is pleased
Protestors stationed outside the event were a reminder that not everyone is convinced. Some fishermen
in the Bay of Fundy have gone to court to try to reverse the provincial permit that allowed the
deployment. They say it poses a threat to the lobster fishery, a claim the province and Cape Sharp Tidal
dismiss.
Emera's chief corporate development officer, Nancy Tower, addressed the concern in remarks.
"Would we like to put more turbines in the Bay of Fundy? Yes we would, but not at the expense of things
that matter to coastal communities or to the livelihoods that depend on it," she said.
"We've made a commitment to safeguarding the bay and we're working with scientists and universities to
protect the ocean and marine life."
4 other groups approved for turbines
Given what happened to the first turbine deployed seven years ago, the other outstanding issue is
developing a turbine that can withstand the tides.
Kalanquin earned a round of applause Tuesday when he noted the turbine has already survived the
biggest tide in 17 years.
Four other consortiums have been approved to deploy turbines in the Minas Passage. The site is being
managed by the Fundy Ocean Research Centre for Energy, a non-profit company with a government
mandate to oversee development of the technology and monitor its environmental impacts.
Article 2: New attempt to harness Bay of
Fundy tidal power
Cape Sharp Tidal installing new turbine in Minas Passage
CBC News · Posted: Jul 20, 2018 2:39 PM AT | Last Updated: July 20, 2018
A new phase is beginning in the effort to
harness the Bay of Fundy's world-famous
tides to generate electricity.
A company that's been running a
demonstration project in the Minas
Passage is preparing to install its latest
generation tidal turbine.
The turbine is 16 metres in diameter. It was hauled out of Saint John Harbour on Wednesday
after getting upgrades for about the past year.
"We've got to get this right," said Alisdair McLean, a director of Cape Sharp Tidal, which is a
partnership between Ireland-based OpenHydro and Nova Scotia-based utility company Emera.

Company delays deployment of second Bay of Fundy turbine
"Putting a turbine in the sub-seabed in the Minas Passage is a challenging activity and we want
to be confident that we're putting the very best turbine in that we can."
Cape Sharp ran an earlier-version turbine at Minas Passage for six months, from November
2016 to April 2017.
McLean said modifications were made based on that experience, as well as lessons learned by
partner OpenHydro building turbines in France.
"Through those deployments and experiences we learned that we could improve the reliability
and the efficiency of the turbines if we made some upgrades," said McLean, who is
also OpenHydro's manager for Canada.
"So that's what we decided to do with this turbine before we put it in the water at Minas
Passage."
Get ready to lower it
Thirty to 45 people are expected to be at work on the project in the Parrsboro area for several
days.
"Today we're doing some system checks to make sure everything's a go, getting ready to
deploy the turbine," McLean said.
A tugboat will pull the custom barge into position and the turbine will eventually be lowered into
the water with cables over a period of 70 to 90 minutes, he expects.

Could this 'no-brainer' concept be the key to harnessing the power of the Bay of
Fundy tides?
The turbine is outfitted with monitors that can be accessed by internet, said McLean, and a subsea cable transmits power to the Nova Scotia grid.
Cape Sharp is still looking to demonstrate that the turbine can be run efficiently and without
hurting the environment.
"That may be the most important consideration here," McLean said.
"We hope and expect that the results of that will show that there's a benign impact on the
environment, in which case we'll get permission from regulators to keep the turbine there for
quite a few years," he said.
Big Moon Power is testing an alternative way of
generating tidal power it calls a Kinetic Keel. (Big
Moon Power)
Cape Sharp isn't the only company working
on tidal power generation at the Fundy
Ocean Research Centre for Energy.
Minas Tidal, Atlantis Operations, Black Rock
Tidal Power and Haligonia Tidal Energy Ltd /
DP Energy are all listed as partners on FORCE's website.
They are all planning to deploy demonstration projects between now and 2020, according to a
spokesperson for the Nova Scotia Department of Energy and Mines.
Big Moon received two permits this spring to test a (single) prototype kinetic keel and to
increase the size of its project in phases over five years. Its test site is on the south side of the
Minas Passage.
Instead of a turbine, it uses a floating platform with a perpendicular piece of steel, attached to a
drum and generator on land.
Identifying Biases
Article # ___
1. In your own words, what is the writer’s opinion/bias on the topic?
2. Highlight or underline words/phrases in the article that support this opinion/bias.
3. After reading the news article, what is your opinion on the topic?
4. Summarize your findings with your partner(s)
5. After hearing about the biases/opinions of the other article, has your opinion changed on
the topic? Why or why not?