Canadian govt provides funds for Nova Scotia tidal energy research

The government of Canada has committed CAD 1 million (USD 754,000/EUR 675,000) to a tidal energy research project in Nova Scotia.

The investment was announced by Canada's minister of natural resources Jim Carr during a visit to the Bedford Institute of Oceanography on Thursday.

The project, led by the Offshore Energy Research Association (OERA), a not-for-profit organisation, will seek to fill in knowledge gaps and address challenges related to tidal energy in Canada. The research will cover areas such as environmental effects monitoring, and technology cost reduction and innovation, where it will look into common challenges to foundations, moorings, materials and methods. The research will also explore innovations in vessel deployment, positioning, research and equipment recovery. It is expected that the project will reduce uncertainty and investment risk and will lead to lower cost of tidal electricity in Canada.

Min Carr tours the Bedford Institute of #Oceanography & receives updates on science work carried out by NRCan & federal partners pic.twitter.com/ce4v5GTnZc

— Natural Resources (@NRCan) 22 юни 2017 г.

"Understanding the challenges of creating a clean and renewable source of energy from the world's highest tides has been the focus of Nova Scotia's research community for many decades," said Nova Scotia's energy minister Geoff MacLellan. "The answers to fundamental questions around environmental impacts, how to reduce costs for technology and marine operations are critical to our collective success," the minister added.

The CAD-1-million funding comes from NRCan's Energy Innovation Program. The Province of Nova Scotia and OERA have each provided CAD 125,000 for the project.

(CAD 1 = USD 0.754/EUR 0.675)

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