If all goes to plan, residents of Queens may have a greener alternative to buying electricity.

Roswall Development Inc is proposing to build a wind farm along the Mersey River on former Bowater lands.

Managing Director of Roswall Developments Daniel Roscoe says the fact the 20,000-acre parcel has been commercially harvested over the last 100 years means an easier start up for the company as the land is already mostly cleared and a road network is in place.

“In addition, what also interests us is not only the size and distance from everything, because it is quite far away from houses and so forth, but there is a significant transmission infrastructure from an electrical perspective in Milton,” said Roscoe. “There’s an electrical substation in Milton that used to feed the mill.”

Roscoe says they plan to begin with eight turbines generating 36 megawatts of power and gradually add more until they are producing 150 megawatts from a total of 33 turbines.

Connecting that infrastructure to the Nova Scotia Power electrical grid will be key in getting energy from the wind farm into people’s homes.

Roscoe says the company is unique in Nova Scotia as it is the only wind farm that won’t be selling energy back to Nova Scotia Power.

Roswall is the first in the province to be awarded a license to sell power directly to consumers under the Renewable to Retail program introduced by the provincial government in 2015.

Before working out an arrangement with Nova Scotia Power to connect to their grid the company still needs to pass an environmental assessment, secure a lease from the province to use the crown lands and sign a development agreement with the Region of Queens.

The plan is to have all the permits in place by the end of 2022 so they can begin selling power by the end of 2023.

Roscoe says to meet international obligations, Nova Scotia needs to shut down 1,000 megawatts of coal generated power over the next eight years.

Not only does Nova Scotia need to find a green alternative to replace that power he says, demands on the electrical system are only going to rise as people move to heat and cool their homes with heat pumps and transition to driving electric cars.

“A third thing, which I think could be the most interesting for Queens County and the South Shore is that new businesses need clean energy to be successful in the international market,” said Roscoe. “If you want to make green hydrogen or biofuel or sell anything into Europe, you need a carbon footprint and you need that carbon footprint to be low.”

Roswall held a public information meeting Thursday and Roscoe says they plan to host another later this summer once they have completed their environmental assessment.

More information on the project can be found at the company website merseywind.ca.

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