Powering down?

Province moving away from coal energy by 2030

The Trenton power plant has a new expiry date.

If Nova Scotia Premier Iain Rankin's government has its way, the province will phase out coal energy by 2030 – 10 years earlier than the government had originally planned.

Results from a survey conducted by Narrative Research after Rankin’s pledge last month show that of those surveyed, 50 per cent completely support Rankin’s initiative while 25 per cent mostly support the initiative.

On the other side, 10 per cent express some level of opposition and 14 per cent are unsure.

Support was most seen in Halifax (82 per cent) and lower among those in the rest of the mainland (71 per cent) and Cape Breton (64 per cent).

Peter Boyles, chair of the Climate Change Advisory Committee for the Municipality of Pictou County, is not surprised so many people are in favour of the shortened timeline.

Boyles, who has long advocated for changes at the coalpowered Trenton Generating Station, believes anyone with common sense will realize the benefits.

“We have done so much research into this over the

“I’ve been doing this since the early 90s and the statistics show your health costs go down (when you get rid of coal energy). Your environment is cleaner.” Peter Boyles Chair of the Climate Change Advisory Committee for the Municipality of Pictou County

years,” he said. “I’ve been doing this since the early 90s and the statistics show your health costs go down (when you get rid of coal energy). Your environment is cleaner.”

There are eight coal-fired generation units in Nova Scotia all owned by Nova Scotia Power, the Trenton Generating Station is home to two of them.

Boyles says the surrounding community around Trenton has been dealing with frequent fly ash.

“We are aligned with the provincial government’s goals for climate action and are looking at how to accelerate our clean energy transition. It has to be done in a way that is affordable for our customers. We believe it will take a co-ordinated effort at the utility level and the provincial and federal level. We are having those discussions.” Jacqueline Foste Nova Scotia Power

“Fly ash is all over our homes and it eats into stuff,” he said.

Nova Scotia Power made efforts to reduce emissions at the plant by adding a new burner and filter, but Boyles says they saw little difference overall.

As for the 2030 timeline, Boyles doesn’t have much faith in it. He says too many times they have been let down.

He gave the example of the once standing 2014 agreement Nova Scotia and the federal government made that allowed the province to keep its coal-fired electricity plants open beyond the standing 2030 federal deadline.

The Ecology Action Centre based out of Halifax says phasing out coal by 2030 is completely feasible.

Plans for the retirement and replacement of one of Trenton’s units can be seen as early as 2023 in Nova Scotia Power’s 2020 Integrated Resource Plan.

Asked by The News about the phasing out coal energy, Jacqueline Foster provided a written response on behalf of Nova Scotia Power.

“We are aligned with the provincial government’s goals for climate action and are looking at how to accelerate our clean energy transition. It has to be done in a way that is affordable for our customers. We believe it will take a co-ordinated effort at the utility level and the provincial and federal level. We are having those discussions.”

“There is also a human element to this transition. Nova Scotia has eight coal-fired generation units that employ about 350 people. We are committed to our employees as well as the communities we serve and will continue to support them through this transition.”

Gurprasad Gurumurthy said the Ecology Action Centre wants to see coal replaced with renewable energy, and he expressed the same sentiment as Nova Scotia Power, that current coal plant employees will have to be supported through this transition.

He said between coal jobs and green jobs there should be some transferable skills, and there is also online training resources and modules for green energy jobs.

ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH IMPACT

Canada as a whole has made strides in reducing its air pollutants in recent years.

In 2018 the emissions of five key air pollutants had dropped by 73 per cent for sulphur oxides and 11 per cent for fine particulate matter compared to 1990 levels.

Yet while they have been improved, air pollution is still a problem in Canada and Nova Scotia.

The Ecology Action Centre reports that based on federal government analysis, phasing out coal electricity in Nova Scotia by 2030 would avoid 89 premature deaths, 8,000 asthma episodes and 58,000 days of breathing difficulty for Nova Scotians, among other benefits.

Four provinces currently operate coal power plants: Alberta, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

Coal power plants emit sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), fine particulate matter (PM2.5), mercury, ground-level ozone and greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane.

The federal government says exposure to nitrogen oxides and sulphur oxides can irritate the lungs, reduce lung function, and increase susceptibility to allergens in people with asthma.

In 2018, electric utilities were the source of 27 per cent of sulphur oxide emissions and seven per cent of nitrogen oxide emissions nationally, most of which came from burning coal.

Out of all the fuel types in electricity generation, coal emits the most pollutants. Despite accounting for less than seven per cent of total electricity generation, coal was responsible for 63 per cent of Canada’ s electricity related greenhouse gas emissions in 2018.

Greenhouse gases trap sunlight and solar radiation in the atmosphere warming the planet. Some consequences of Earth warming are sea levels will continue to rise, heat waves, drought and reduced agricultural yields.

HISTORY OF COAL IN PICTOU COUNTY

(from the Museum of Industry and the Mining Association of Nova Scotia)

Pictou County is home to a coalfield, a large area with a lot of coal underground.

Located near the Northumberland Strait, it encompasses roughly an area of 18 km by six km and is made up of 15 major coal seams.

Coal was first discovered in the coalfield around 1790 by Scottish settlers, although the Mi’kmaq were well aware of methane naturally burning at the rock outcrops and along the East River.

The Pictou Coalfield was known to be particularly gassy with methane. Methane gets trapped as coal is formed and is released when seams are mined.

This made mining difficult as methane is flammable and is an explosive in enclosed areas. Every mine that opened in the Foord seam in Stellarton ended in fire or explosion. Westville and Thorburn experienced similar problems.

The worst disaster in the coalfield happened on January 23, 1918. An explosion killed 88 workers at the Allan Mine in Stellarton. It took several months to find all the bodies and bring them to the surface.

Over the next 31 years, the mine experienced six more explosions and numerous fires, the last forcing the mine’s closure in 1951.

In 1827 the General Mining Association took over the coalfield gaining a monopoly on most coal in Nova Scotia. The GMA invested heavily and brought the industrial revolution to the province.

GMA built Nova Scotia’s first steam engines to power pit hoists and pumps, and to drive coal ships. Nova Scotia’s first steam-powered railway was the Albion Mines Railway, built in 1839 to transport coal from the Stellarton mines to docks in Pictou Harbour. It was only the second steam railway in Canada.

The most recent underground coal mining operation was Westray in the 1990s. This week marks the anniversary of the Westray Coal Mine Disaster. It exploded on May 9, 1992, killing 26 miners.

Today there is only one operational coal mine in the coalfield, Stellarton Surface Coal Mine operated by Pioneer Coal.

MOVING FORWARD

When it comes to green energy Nova Scotia has options. Solar, wind, hydro and nuclear power all don’t emit any pollutants.

There are now more than 300 commercial wind turbines generating 18 per cent of electricity in Nova Scotia.

Wind and solar have their limitations though, as sometimes the wind isn’t blowing or the sun isn’t shining. That is why Nova Scotia Power is looking into battery storage. Through pilot projects like Smart Grid Nova Scotia, they are exploring how batteries can store excess wind and solar power.

As for hydro Nova Scotia Power has 33 hydroelectric plants on 17 hydro river systems across Nova Scotia, totalling 400 MW of generation capacity.

The province is also home to one of just three tidal power plants in the world. The Annapolis Tidal Station, depending on the tides, can generate roughly 80-100 megawatt-hours of electricity daily, depending on the tides.

Cape Sharp Tidal began testing the first turbine of a 4 MW (megawatt) project in the Bay of Fundy in late 2016. The project includes two in-stream tidal turbines which are estimated to reduce Nova Scotia’s CO2 emissions by 6,000 tonnes per year.

Other tidal projects planned for Nova Scotia as of September 2020 are Black Rock Tidal Power (five MW), Minas Tidal Limited Partnership (4 MW), Atlantis Operations Canada Limited (4.5 MW), Halagonia Tidal Energy Limited (4.5 MW), and Fundy Tidal Inc. (2.95 MW).

Another hydro project that is underway will allow Nova Scotia to import energy from Labrador’s hydroelectric facility at Muskrat Falls. Power was first achieved from Muskrat Falls in September 2020 and the aim is to have all four units be in service this fall.

Wind and solar have their limitations though, as sometimes the wind isn’t blowing or the sun isn’t shining. That is why Nova Scotia Power is looking into battery storage. Through pilot projects like Smart Grid Nova Scotia, they are exploring how batteries can store excess wind and solar power.