Environmental Performance Timeline

Environmental Performance Timeline

1970s

  • Fossil fuels – mainly oil until the 1980s – supply most of Nova Scotia’s electricity
  • Generating facilities are built in proximity to domestic coal resources.
  • Our largest generating station, Lingan, was constructed in Cape Breton to burn coal.
  • Nova Scotia’s largest hydroelectric station, Wreck Cove, was constructed.

1980s

  • Point Tupper Generating Station, also based in Cape Breton, was converted from oil to burn coal.
  • Our Annapolis Tidal Power Plant, still the only facility of its kind in North America, was constructed.

1990s

  • We begin using low-sulphur coal and state-of-the-art low NOx burners at Unit 6 of our Trenton Generating Station. We added equipment called an electrostatic precipitator, designed to reduce emissions, to Unit 5 at Trenton.
  • Point Aconi Generating Station was constructed, opening in 1994. This plant remains our most environmentally-progressive coal burning facility with the fewest emissions.
  • Conversions at the Tufts Cove Generating Station were made to allow the plant to burn either natural gas or heavy fuel oil – whatever is more cost effective for customers.
  • An electrostatic precipitator is added to Tufts Cove Unit 2.
  • Coal mines in Cape Breton closed down, leading to the need to import most of our coal.

2000s

  • Two 50 MW combustion turbines are added to Tufts Cove to burn natural gas.
  • Electrostatic precipitators are added to Tufts Cove Units 1 and 3.
  • We enhanced our net metering program, raising the upper limit from 10 kilowatts to 100 kilowatts. Customers with a generation source of their own get full retail value for any excess power they produce. A growing number are taking advantage of this program.
  • Our first two wind turbines were installed at Grand Etang and Little Brook in 2002, while a larger push toward wind begins a few years later.

2010

  • Digby Neck and Nuttby Mountain Wind Farms are fully operational, with a combined generating capacity of 80 MW.

2011

  • 17.5% of Nova Scotia’s electricity is generated by renewable sources, meeting the requirement of 15%.

2012

  • Tufts Cove Unit 6 is commissioned, a combined cycle combustion turbine that burns natural gas.

2013

  • A 60 MW biomass power plant in Port Hawkesbury is commissioned, which supplies as much as 3% of the province’s electricity. It provides a source of firm renewable energy that can back up intermittent wind generation.
  • 20% of Nova Scotia’s electricity must be generated by renewable sources.

2015

  • 26.6% of electricity was generated by renewable sources, surpassing the required target of 25%.

2018

  • 29% of electricity was generated by renewable sources.

2020

  • 40% of Nova Scotia’s electricity must be generated by renewable sources.