On February 27, Nova Scotia announced legislation to start the implementation of their 2030 Clean Power Plan. The goal of the plan is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from electricity by 90% while providing reliable affordable power to Nova Scotians. How?
Similar to New Brunswick, Nova Scotia plans to phase out coal-fired electricity. However, instead of experimenting with nuclear power, Nova Scotia will simply increase its use of renewable sources to 80% by 2030. That’s a tall order as NS currently only generates 14% of its electricity from renewable sources. The good news is that they will not have to invent any new technology to succeed, just use what’s already readily available in the power industry marketplace.
According to an October 2023 presentation by the NS Department of Natural Resources, the plan has three main elements:
• Adding more wind and solar power.
• Using grid management tools such as batteries and load management to integrate renewables.
• Deploying transmission facilities and dispatchable hydrogen-capable generators to increase resilience and reliability, especially during severe events increasingly exacerbated by climate change.
NS will deploy several additional sources of clean power by 2030:
• 1,370 MW more onshore wind
• 300+ MW of grid scale solar power
• Imported power from Muskrat Falls hydro to handle 10-15% of annual NS electricity needs.
• Rooftop solar power
• Community solar power
• 300 MW of hydrogen capable generators
NS will use various proven techniques to integrate renewable variable sources of power.
• Add up to 400 MW of battery storage
• Upgrade NS-NB regional transmission capacity to 500+ MW
• Use technology such as demand response and load management to avoid power curtailment and reduce power load peaks