DP Energy takes step closer to delivering its first Energy Scheme in Canada.

Ireland-based renewable energy development company DP Energy took a step closer today to the installation of a 4.5MW tidal stream demonstration power plant in the Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia, the first of its kind in Canada.

Nova Scotia’s Minister of Energy Andrew Younger said his Department’s intention to identify a fifth berth in the Fundy Ocean Research Centre for Energy (FORCE) with DP Marine Energy was progressing positively. The move follows DP Energy’s submission in response to the Nova Scotia Request for Proposals late last year.

Speaking at the International Conference on Ocean Energy in the World Trade & Convention Centre in Halifax yesterday, November 4, Minister Younger expressed his confidence that the full power production capacity in Phase 1 of a comprehensive program in the Bay of Fundy would be allocated soon. It is expected that grid-connected clean renewable electricity to the Nova Scotia Power Parrsboro substation would start flowing from the FORCE demonstration facility in the Bay of Fundy within two years.

DP Energy has been working closely with technology partners ANDRITZ HYDRO Hammerfest and ANDRITZ HYDRO Canada since 2013 on the project plan, and the team believe that they now have a very compelling proposition in place. Simon De Pietro, managing director of DP Energy, says that a development of a berth in Fundy would position the firm which he and his mother Maureen established 20 years ago as an early stage wind development company, firmly at the top of the marine energy development sector.

“This would be a very significant development for DP Energy and an expression of our confidence in tidal energy generation as a key component in the portfolio of reliable, predictable and emissions free power sources needed to take us into a more sustainable
future,” says Mr De Pietro.

The Cork-based firm became Europe’s largest independent developer of tidal stream energy following its acquisition of the Westray South project from SSE Renewables in April 2014.