Mining, energy companies say hydro storage project could be template for N.S. mines
CBC
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.
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