Keith Doucette, The Canadian Press
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HALIFAX — The project to establish an energy corridor to supply the four Atlantic provinces with electricity from Quebec and Labrador will help them reduce GHG emissions, but will not completely eliminate them on its own .
That’s according to a new study.
The Atlantic Loop project is estimated at $5 billion.
According to the study carried out by a Halifax environmental association, Ecology Action Centre, the demand for electricity will increase when the use of coal is phased out.
The model used for the study suggests that the Atlantic Loop project is important to meet future electricity demand, but it must be combined with the exploitation of other renewable energy sources and efficiency measures.
Finding new sources of electricity will be particularly important for New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, the only two provinces in the region still using coal-fired power plants.
The study recalls that the federal government will not accept that the Belledune power station in New Brunswick burns coal after 2030. For its part, Nova Scotia continues to manage four power stations fueled by coal and petroleum coke. The largest, located in Lingan, has a capacity of 620 megawatts.
The study also mentions that the supply of electricity from Quebec and Labrador “could be called into question” due to strong competition from other suppliers from the United States and Ontario.
Atlantic Premiers have been discussing funding for the Atlantic Loop project with the federal government over the past few months, but the federal government has not yet committed to it.
Nova Scotia Minister of Natural and Renewable Resources Tory Rushton says discussions are underway.
“So far, we have not formally submitted a petition to the federal government,” he said last week. We are in the process of completing our cost estimate for the project.”
He acknowledges, however, that if anything needs to be announced, it will be done sooner rather than later.
“We have quite ambitious goals. 2030 is not that far away. We realize that decisions will have to be made very soon.”
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