Nova Scotia Power and Natural Forces Breaking Ground with Utility's First Community Solar Garden
Nova Scotia Power has partnered with Natural Forces Solar to build its first community solar garden. This local partnership is an important opportunity to collaborate, innovate and take action together as we contribute to building a greener economy in the province.
The solar garden is another milestone in Nova Scotia Power’s plan to build and sustain a more efficient, cleaner electrical grid that will provide customers with clean, reliable, affordable energy today and into the future.
“Traditional rooftop solar is connected through the electrical panel within a customer’s home or business,” said David Landrigan, Vice President Nova Scotia Power. “Our community solar garden will be connected directly into the grid and then the green electricity will be distributed to homes and businesses from there. This gives customers the opportunity to enjoy the benefits of solar power even if they cannot or prefer not to install solar panels on their roof or property.”
The solar garden will be located in the Town of Amherst and will produce approximately 2700 MWh of electricity per year – enough to power about 240 homes or 700 battery powered electric vehicles.
“We’re very excited to be working with Nova Scotia Power and the Town of Amherst on this project,” said Roby Douglas, Vice President Natural Forces Solar. “Our team is passionate about clean, renewable energy and we look forward to bringing our design concept to life and making solar energy more accessible to customers.”
Solar garden construction has begun and recruitment of pilot participants will begin later this summer. The community solar garden is expected to be fully operational in the Fall of this year.
The solar garden is one of four components planned to test clean energy technologies and their benefits to customers as part of the Smart Grid Nova Scotia project. Smart Grid Nova Scotia is a four-year-Innovation Pilot Project (2020-2023) approved by the NS Utility and Review Board that also includes solar panels and batteries at 3 commercial sites, 135 distributed battery storage systems and 100 electric vehicle smart chargers and up to 20 bidirectional chargers.
Smart Grid Nova Scotia is part of the $90M Smart Grid Atlantic initiative that will include three community-scale projects within New Brunswick and this Project in NS. This initiative is receiving funding support from Innovation Science and Economic Development Canada, Natural Resources Canada and the Province of Nova Scotia.
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About Nova Scotia Power
Nova Scotia Power Inc. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Emera Inc. (TSX-EMA), a diversified energy and services company. Nova Scotia Power provides 95% of the generation, transmission and distribution of electrical power to more than 525,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers across Nova Scotia. The company is focused on new technologies to enhance customer service and reliability, reduce emissions and add renewable energy. Nova Scotia Power has over 1,700 employees and $4.1 billion in operating assets. Learn more at www.nspower.ca.
About Natural Forces Solar
Natural Forces Solar is a turnkey engineering, procurement and construction contractor specializing in the deployment of renewable energy systems. Natural Forces Solar is a division of Natural Forces, a unique maritime-based private independent power producer that delivers renewable energy projects in partnership with local communities across Canada, the United States and Ireland. For more information, visit www.naturalforcessolar.ca.
Contact:
Jacqueline Foster
NSP Senior Communications Advisor
902-225-4735
Kathleen Funke
Natural Forces Communications & Government Relations Manager
902-292-2476