Halifax wind energy deal to cut city emissions by 24%

Nearly half of Halifax's municipal electricity will soon come from a Queens County wind farm, a move the city says will cut its greenhouse gas emissions by a quarter.

This fall, Halifax Regional Municipality signed an agreement with Renewall Energy for about 33,000 megawatt hours per year coming from the new Mersey River Wind farm near Milton, N.S., starting in 2026.

Kevin Boutilier, HRM's manager of clean energy, said the deal accounts for about 45 per cent of Halifax's corporate electricity, and will reduce corporate emissions by 24 per cent. This move also cuts overall Halifax corporate energy consumption by 19 per cent.

Boutilier said buying renewable energy is an important tool to help Halifax meet its own goal of getting to net-zero municipal operations by 2030, and "show leadership at the local level."

The city's climate-change plan, called HalifACT, set this goal as part of a roadmap to get Halifax to overall zero emissions by 2050.

"You know, we can retrofit our buildings, we can choose to transition to electric vehicles and we can buy renewable electricity from vendors if it exists. So it's just, it is inherently easier as an organization to, you know, clean our own house up first," Boutilier said.

He said the terms of the deal have rates starting at five per cent less than the current market, and won't increase more than one per cent a year for the next 20 years. This would mean at least the same price or less than Halifax is paying now, Boutilier said, which makes a difference when the city spent about $9 million for electricity in 2022.

Daniel Roscoe, CEO of Roswall Development, which owns Renewall, said Halifax is currently the largest of their 30 clients signed on to receive energy from the Mersey River Wind project.

Roscoe said the economics of renewable energy projects in Nova Scotia have now developed to the point where the industry is competitive with fossil fuels.

"Renewable energy continues to get cheaper, while fossil fuels are going to continue to be exposed to inflation and geopolitical uncertainty, which it seems to be more and more each day," Roscoe said.

Renewall is still the only company in the province, besides Nova Scotia Power, that can sell renewable energy to businesses, governments or homeowners. It received its Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board licence through the Renewable to Retail program in 2021.

HRM is considering another deal with Renewall that would include street lighting to make up about 75 per cent of municipal electricity. 

The city will keep its remaining 25 per cent for use in the province's Green Choice Program, which Boutilier said he's hoping to see launch this year. The program allows entities that consume more than 10,000 annual megawatt hours the chance to buy renewable electricity from wind developments expected to come online by 2028.

As the first to take this step, Roscoe said he feels like other companies are watching and waiting to see how Renewall does before they take the same regulatory process to get a retail licence.