Mining, energy companies say hydro storage project could be template for N.S. mines
Halifax councillors have heard new details about a proposed hydro energy storage project at a former gold mine in the municipality.
Representatives from Australia-based St Barbara Mining and Natural Forces, a Halifax-based renewable energy company, spoke to the Halifax Regional Municipality's environment and sustainability committee on Thursday.
The two groups hope to use St Barbara's former Touquoy mining pit in Moose River, N.S., near Middle Musquodoboit for a closed-loop pumped hydro energy storage project.
"Quite honestly, the history of mine reclamation of the province of Nova Scotia hasn't always been a great story, and we want to change that," Dustin O'Leary, St Barbara Atlantic spokesperson, said in an interview outside the meeting.
Mining operations at Touquoy stopped in 2023, and St Barbara said last year it was conducting a feasibility study with Natural Forces on the hydro storage project.
Tess Donahue, project manager with Natural Forces, said the pumped hydro system would be the first of its kind in Nova Scotia and could last between 50 to 100 years.
It would use two reservoirs at different elevations, with pipes running between them.
The current administrative complex of the Touquoy site would be turned into an upper reservoir, she said, with the former mining pit becoming the lower one.
Renewable energy, like from wind farms, would come into the system and be used to pump water from the lower reservoir to the upper one where it would be stored. When that power is needed, the water would be pumped back down to the lower level and generate electricity for the grid.
Donahue said the 80-megawatt system could produce energy for about 6.5 hours, resulting in about 513 megawatt hours of electricity.
Nova Scotia Power has promised to have 80 per cent of the grid powered by renewable energy like wind, hydro and solar by 2030. Donahue said the utility will need places to store electricity, so the grid can be reliable when winds aren't blowing or the sun isn't shining.
"If there was a long period of high demand, then it could support the grid for longer than a battery could," Donahue said.
It is considered a closed-loop system because the reservoirs are only connected to each other, Donahue said, and fed solely by rain and groundwater.
O'Leary said this would be the first pumped hydro storage system for St Barbara in any of their mines, which operate in various countries.
"It doesn't have to just be St Barbara, either, it can be other mines," O'Leary said. "They're all creating a pit that could be used as an area to store power. So it's got a lot of potential."
Coun. Sam Austin said the project seems like a good idea because it can be hard to "encourage, sometimes, good behaviour" in mining companies tending to their leftover sites.
"If the site continues to actually have an economic rationale for being, I think that probably aligns a lot of interest in the right kind of direction," Austin said during the meeting.
The committee voted to ask regional council to request a staff report that would consider sending a letter of support for the project to the province.
"It's not a requirement, but I think it's a nice add-on to their work," said Coun. Cathy Deagle Gammon.
Ongoing court case
Atlantic Mining Nova Scotia, the St Barbara subsidiary that ran the mine, is in a legal fight with the province over the terms and conditions for the remediation of the Touquoy site.
The Supreme Court of Nova Scotia is currently hearing the case, with the next date set for November. The Ecology Action Centre and Mining Association of Nova Scotia are intervenors in the matter.
The court case doesn't change St Barbara's intention to reclaim the site and return it to a natural state as required, O'Leary said. He said the company has spent $10 million to date on cleanup costs.
O'Leary said they are reviewing the regulations around the hydro storage project, and plan to start environmental studies soon.
Their team hopes to get provincial approval to begin within the next few years, O'Leary said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CBC
13 hours ago
- CBC
Health authority interim CEO calls for further integration of AI into health care
Social Sharing Nova Scotia needs to merge artificial intelligence into the health-care system by way of a research centre, says the interim CEO of the Nova Scotia Health Authority. At a panel discussion on Friday at the Halifax Chamber of Commerce, Karen Oldfield said AI has been introduced to the health-care system in small amounts, but more needs to be done. "We have to lay this foundation," Oldfield said. "But to get to the predictive analytics, to wellness, to precision medicine, we have to have this." Oldfield says that the next logical step for the province is to develop a centre of excellence, meaning a hub dedicated to overseeing and researching AI. Oldfield expanded on this, saying AI would improve clinical efficiency and administration. Oldfield said AI could be used to determine a population or community with a higher likelihood of contracting diseases, like certain kinds of cancer. "If we can predict, then we can get ahead of it," said Oldfield. "That's really where most provinces and most countries want to get.... That's where we need to head." Oldfield says the development of such a centre would be dependent on people more than money. "We need the researchers that are able to use that data …to develop their algorithms that can lead us to predictive analytics and precision medicine," said Oldfield. The proposed AI centre for excellence is only in its early stages. Oldfield says she has had conversations about a centre with the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency and various members of the federal government.
CBC
a day ago
- CBC
Halifax mayor defends motion to temporarily pause new bike lane infrastructure
Halifax Mayor Andy Fillmore is defending a motion he intends to put forward next week at regional council to temporarily pause awarding new design and construction contracts for bike lanes. In his memo to colleagues, which was posted to Reddit on Friday, Fillmore said the move is in response to frustration among residents and business owners over "worsening traffic congestion" and the escalating project costs for the AAA (all ages and abilities) bicycle network. Fillmore stated the municipality is also failing to deliver a "balanced and efficient mobility system" as per its integrated mobility plan. Fillmore told CBC Radio's Mainstreet Halifax on Friday that his goal is to build cycling infrastructure and active transportation infrastructure "in the right way, in a way that doesn't create the very unfortunate backlash that is very real in our city right now." The mayor said he'd like to create cycling infrastructure in Halifax that doesn't sacrifice the needs of others who use the roads, like bus drivers, people who ride the bus, delivery and commercial vehicle drivers, people who have to drive in a car because they're not on a bus route, and those who aren't able to ride bikes. "We have to have a very balanced approach and I just push back on any commentary that we're facing some sort of a binary choice," Fillmore told Mainstreet. "This is very much a pause so that we can all move forward together in a mindful way that reflects the changing reality we have in our growing and busy city." Only applies to tenders not yet awarded Fillmore said the municipal bicycle network was only meant to cost $25 million. He said $16 million has already been spent, but that the budget for the project now is $93 million. "That leaves $77 million yet to be spent. Only $8 million will come from provincial and federal sources, and that leaves an unexpected $69 million to be funded through the municipal tax rate," Fillmore said. Fillmore said construction being done right now will be finished. Tenders identified in the capital budget for the next four years — but not yet awarded — would be put on hold. "This gives us an opportunity to have staff come back to us with a list of all those projects that are in that capital budget with a red light or a green light," he said, adding projects that threaten to "worsen congestion" will be paused. "All that red light means is, OK, we're just going to take a redesign here," Fillmore continued. "I expect a great percentage of the project on that list will get a green light and may only have a holdup of a month or two." 'Misguided proposal' David Trueman, the chair of the Halifax Cycling Coalition, called Fillmore's recommendation a "misguided proposal." He's calling on people to write to their regional councillor and urge them to vote against it. "We just got the cycling infrastructure projects back on track with the report to council from staff where they took the plan that was supposed to be delivered by the end of 2024 and they presented a detailed plan to get to it by 2028," Trueman said. "If we have a temporary pause, this is going to be delayed by years. We have a lot of staff and consultants tied up in designing these infrastructure protects, which take years through the pipeline. If you stop the pipeline, the flow is cut off and there can be untold delays and escalating costs." Trueman said the roads are already built and cycling is catching up. He said the upkeep cost on cycling infrastructure is a tiny fraction of what it would be for road costs. Divisive issue "These projects include all the costs of revamping a given street, and often there are other aspects of the road improvement ... [that] reduce the impact on car traffic," he said, citing a flyover bicycle bridge planned for the Macdonald Bridge site. "If we weren't worried about cars, we could do a much less expensive solution there. It's our propensity to avoid any impact to cars that raises the cost of cycling." Trueman said he thinks Fillmore's proposal is politically motivated. "Halifax has the second highest rate of active transportation of any city in Canada. Surely we don't want to throw that away," he said. "But what Andy Fillmore is keying in on is that cycling is a divisive issue. There's maybe 30 per cent of the population that has their doubts or their objections to it and he wants to create a wedge issue."
CTV News
a day ago
- CTV News
U.S. steel, aluminum tariffs impact Maritime construction, real estate industries
People in the Maritime construction and real estate sectors are starting to see the impact of United States President Donald Trump's tariffs on steel and aluminum. 'It's the counter tariffs that are really going to have an impact on Canadian builders and constructors so we are not 100 per cent sure what that's going to look like just yet, but it certainly will have an impact and it will be felt pretty quickly,' says Duncan Williams, Construction Association of Nova Scotia CEO. 'Unfortunately it's going to drive the cost up, we don't know by how much and we don't know how quickly.' Trump has placed a 50 per cent tariff on Canadian steel and aluminum products, and lumber isn't far behind. 'We are already seeing an impact in terms of slowing projects down, and also seeing some projects just simply shelved, it's definitely having an impact on what comes online. We're hoping it's short term and short pain,' says Williams. 'A lot of companies, where they have capacity, were stockpiling what they could and pre-ordering and trying to lock prices in but even that is very difficult.' Williams says the tariffs are impacting the construction sector in terms of costs, availability and production capacity. 'We are certainly seeing a lot more caution in terms of investment. We are seeing sharper estimating, budgeting and forecasting, especially now with the prices already being higher, this is just one more nail that we don't need,' adds Williams. Realtor Rion Powell says he's noticed his clients second guessing the market right now. 'A lot of noise, a lot of uncertainty and so for the people that are waiting on the sidelines to see how this all plays out, there is an opportunity right now to get a good quality home at a fair price,' says Powell. Powell feels sometimes the best time to jump into the market is when there is uncertainty. 'You think about COVID, which was so long ago but that was the talk about the real estate market, too,' says Powell. 'The market exploded here in Halifax and in the rest of Canada. Prices soared and everyone was kicking themselves saying, 'Jeez, I should have bought in 2021, 2022 in the midst of a global pandemic.' 'When there are less buyers in the marketplace, that means there is more opportunity for buyers. When there are more buyers in the marketplace, that means it's a better opportunity for sellers. This is really the beginning of what we are going to start to see. The impact on this over the next three to six months and I'm not sure how this is going to play out.'
