Atlantic Growth Strategy – Clean Energy

March 1, 2019

Atlantic Canada has made important strides to enhance the generation, transmission and use of clean power across the region. Nova Scotia and New Brunswick are on track to reduce their emissions by 30 percent below 2005 levels by 2030, largely as a result of actions taken to address emissions in their electricity sectors. Prince Edward Island, thanks to its integration with New Brunswick, generates nearly all of its electricity from wind energy, the only Canadian jurisdiction to do so. With the completion of the Muskrat Falls project, the Labrador–Island Link and the Maritime Link, Newfoundland and Labrador will both reduce its own emissions and begin supplying clean electricity to the Maritime provinces.

The Atlantic provinces and the federal government have a long history of collaborating to find regional solutions to meet electricity needs, including through the recently completed Regional Electricity Cooperation and Strategic Infrastructure (RECSI) initiative.

The Clean Power Roadmap for Atlantic Canada will outline a collective vision for how jurisdictions will collaborate over the coming decades to build a clean power network across Atlantic Canada.

An Atlantic Clean Power Planning Committee, with senior representatives from all jurisdictions, will be formed to lead the development of the roadmap. The committee will:

• evaluate different options to develop new clean electricity supplies (including renewable energy and energy storage technologies) across the region;
• forecast electricity demand across the region over the coming decades, including potential changes in demand from electrification of vehicles and heating;
• identify the most cost-effective and critical transmission projects, including interprovincial interties, needed to move power across the region and better integrate markets; and
• use modelling to determine the mix of electricity resources to meet demand across the region.

The federal government has committed up to $2 million over two years to support the development of the roadmap, including studies and analysis that would need to be undertaken.