The first New Brunswick Tidal Power Summit gathered industry professionals to discuss the challenges, and opportunities tidal energy developments could bring to the province.
The Summit, organized by Port Saint John and Opportunities NB hosted, gathered members from Port Saint John, NB Power, Opportunities New Brunswick, Black Rock Tidal Power, Minas Energy, Andritz Group, Marine Renewables Canada, along with various marine energy organizations around Saint John at the Saint John Diamond Jubilee Cruise Terminal where the event was held, Envenio informed.
According to the New Brunswick-based developer of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) solutions for industrial users, Envenio, New Brunswick’s Minister of Energy and Resource Development, Rick Doucet , emphasized the importance of heavy-infrastructure capabilities during the opening remark at the Summit by saying: “Our barge facility is built to handle large equipment, our port has big capabilities, and we have an abundance of fabrication firms.”
Neil Larlee, Director of Strategic Planning for NB Power, emphasized NB Power’s goal of achieving 75% clean power generation by 2020, recognizing the importance of tidal power and renewable energy, while Dana Morin from Marine Renewables Canada spoke about the value of tidal energy by saying it would be a $900 billion industry by 2050, Envenio informed.
Tony Wright, General Manager at Fundy Ocean Research Centre for Energy (FORCE), spoke about the importance of affordability and safety, as well as better data management capabilities, according to Envenio.