There's trouble blowing in the wind
Big wind farms in financial or deadline trouble, sometimes being bailed out by Nova Scotia Power, are almost daily fare on the business pages these days. Like much of the rest of the world, we've cast wind as the saviour in our quest for green energy. Here's stuff we should know while we still have time to reset our options.
In Spain, Italy, the U.S. and elsewhere, big wind power scams have erupted, the result of hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies being pumped into wind with little control. Some politicians and entrepreneurs are already in jail.
Hydro-Quebec brings opportunity for Nova Scotia energy
Like you, I was taken aback earlier by the news that a deal had been struck whereby Hydro-Quebec would more or less take over NB Power. What did it mean, especially for Nova Scotia? Having thought it over, I've found the hidden message: If the deal goes through, offering Quebec's ample hydro power right next door, take it.
We'd be fools not to. It would be a marvellous thing that would save us a great deal of trouble. Depending on the amount, it would allow us to slow down on the option of "big wind and biomass" that we have chosen to deliver 25 per cent of our power by 2015, that's getting more troublesome all the time and that may not work even under the most optimistic scenario.