David Stevenson joined the club for an “electrifying” presentation on wind energy and electric vehicles in Nova Scotia.
 
David is with Cumberland Colchester Wind Field Inc. which owns and manages wind turbines in Tatamagouche (Spiddle Hill) and Nuttby. CCWF also has involvement with several programs in Nova Scotia including Wind to Wheels and Direct to EV, which aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the province.
 
“The sun shines everyday somewhere!” David claims, and that thinking has led CCWF to look to renewable energy to help fuel economic growth in Nova Scotia. There is great opportunity in this province to leverage wind, solar and (hopefully) tidal energy. Nova Scotia is one of the only jurisdictions in North America to have to have imposed laws to reduce green house gas emissions. Nova Scotia Power Inc is already on target to meet the 2015 goal of 25% renewable sources and on track to be well past 40% by 2020.
 
 
Nova Scotia is presently an energy island, a net importer of electricity, with limited infrastructure to link us to other provinces and states. However, this is changing and as we continue to expand our renewal sources this link will play an important role. The The Nova Scotia Community Feed-in Terif (COMFIT) program has been helpful increasing renewable sources in the province by assuring guaranteed rates for community-based energy projects such as CCWF’s.
 
Given his passion for renewable energy, a passion for electric vehicles (EV) seems like a natural fit for David. EVs offer many advantages over current vehicles in reduced maintenance and support costs. Fleet vehicles and school busses are great examples because they have set routes, down time for charging and often require significant infrastructure to support. David has an attachment to his EV, just as many of us have attachments to our vehicles, but in order to make EVs a more viable option for Nova Scotia consumers he wants to bring more choice.
 
Some programs already exist in the province, such as the NSPI share ready initiative, but there is room for more. David has asked the province for sales tax reductions, but that’s not going to happen ;-) However, other places do have tax incentives for buyers and hopefully we may start to more options here in Nova Scotia in the form of used cars from other locations.
 
Another important step is installing charging stations. David would like to see an EV friendly charging corridor in the province that would allow drivers to travel from Yarmouth to Cape Breton with reliable access to charge stations. There are two types charge stations, Community and Long Distance (High Power, DC fast charging). plugshare.com lists charging stations in North America and you may notice that there is presently only one Long Distance charge station in Atlantic Canada and it is in Millbrook. There is a second on the way, which will be located at the Barrington St. Superstore in Halifax, but Millbrook has put us on the map!
 
While there are still lots of problems to solve with both renewable energy sources and electric vehicles, good progress is being made. For example, Tri-County Ford now sells and services electric vehicles and, when asked, Rotarian Brian Matthews shared that CCWF is “the most successful program of it’s kind in the province”.
 
Just one of the Nuttby turbines is capable of fueling 2400 EVs in Nova Scotia full time. And David’s Tesla EV is capable of traveling 400km on a single charge, which takes 2 hours from nothing. “I have it plugged in now, but that’s just for effect” says David. “This is a new world and we can not continue to use fossil fuel resources that are not being produced”. David would like Nova Scotia to be considered an EV friendly province.
 
For anyone interested in learning more or trying an EV, there is a conference coming up on May 25 called EV2015 that will feature a Ride and Drive event.
 
 
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