Burchill Wind to power a new energy future for the Saint John region

The following commentary was originally posted to Huddle.today on April 28, 2022.

The Burchill Wind Energy Project illustrates how efforts to help New Brunswick meet its climate action targets are generating new economic activity and opening the door to additional opportunities.

By David Duplisea, April 28, 2022

When I look at our economic landscape, I see a region poised for growth. Our upward trajectory reflects the can-do attitude of our business community. It also reflects our community’s shift toward a future powered by greener electricity. This cultural change promises to be as good for business and population growth as it is for the environment.

“Our renewable energy assets will be important not only for the Saint John region but for the province as a whole.”

Businesses around the world are striving to secure reliable supplies of clean, diversified energy.

The Saint John region has some unique advantages in this regard. Our community has a history of pioneering new energy technologies, from Abraham Gesner’s 19th century discovery that petroleum could be refined from oil shale to the development of next-generation nuclear reactors. Now that the world’s focus is shifting to renewable energy, Saint Johners are capitalizing on the value of being located in a place where the natural energies of wind and tide converge.

Before this year is over, the first large-scale wind farm in our region’s history will be completed and operational. Natural Forces is constructing the Burchill Wind Energy Project at a site in Lorneville. It will supply Saint John Energy with enough electricity to power roughly 15 per cent of the city. The high-capacity power line that connects Burchill to the city’s grid will allow for the development of other renewable energy projects in Saint John’s future.

Reliable, affordable energy

The Burchill Wind Energy Project illustrates how efforts to help New Brunswick meet its climate action targets are generating new economic activity and opening the door to additional opportunities. This is an exciting and important development for our city and region, and it is just one of the projects underway to ensure Saint John businesses continue to have access to reliable, affordable energy.

“Businesses around the world are striving to secure reliable supplies of clean, diversified energy.”

The growing diversity in New Brunswick’s energy sector is helping to power up the economy of the region. Approximately 1,100 people in the Saint John census metropolitan area work directly in the electricity generation, transmission and distribution field. This is the second-highest concentration of workers in the sector among 35 large urban centres across Canada. We’re surpassed only by Oshawa, Ontario.

Our increasingly diverse energy environment is a selling point for businesses and professionals considering a move to Saint John. They appreciate the rate stability that Saint John Energy provides. They also appreciate being able to tell their customers that a growing proportion of the electricity supplied in Saint John is renewable as well as reliable.

Our renewable energy assets will be important not only for the Saint John region but for the province as a whole as we all move toward a cleaner energy future and our net-zero emissions goals.

Burchill will join hydro power, solar energy, nuclear and emerging technologies such as tidal turbines and small modular reactors as diverse and complementary energy solutions for the decades ahead. It’s all about striking a balance that supports business growth through marketable innovation.

Abundant supply

To grow the Saint John region, we need an abundant supply of energy at stable rates, generated from local renewable resources whenever it is practical to do so. Our Chamber understands this. Fortunately, so do our regional energy producers.

“To grow the Saint John region, we need an abundant supply of energy at stable rates, generated from local renewable resources.”

Businesses are already benefiting from Saint John Energy’s smart and reliable distribution network, which can shift seamlessly between energy sources, store electricity, moderate fluctuations in electricity demand and ensure that power continues to flow. Adding wind to the mix is only part of the solution.

In the past 18 months, Saint John Energy has installed a 1.25-megawatt lithium-ion Tesla Megapack battery, one of the first in the world to be deployed and the largest storage battery of its kind in Atlantic Canada.

The utility is employing its smart electrical grid, coupled to smart appliances, to shave the peak off winter energy usage, reducing carbon emissions and ensuring greater price stability – strategies that are garnering national and international recognition for innovation, including the International Smart Grid Action Network's global Award of Excellence and the Canadian Electricity Association's Advancement of an Integrated Approach to Sustainability Award.

Clean energy era

Some of the world’s most innovative businesses are focused on building an integrated energy distribution system right here. To these businesses, and many of our other members, augmenting traditional energy sources with renewable energy represents an opportunity to “do good” while “doing well.”

“We look forward to the clean energy era ahead – powered by the Burchill Wind Energy Project and the other innovative energy initiatives underway.”

I am confident that we will continue to gain in growth and prosperity as long as our region continues to pursue a diversified approach to energy development. My confidence comes from our proud history of innovation and entrepreneurship.

Our Chamber has been involved in energy policy since 1922, when city merchants successfully lobbied for the creation of a municipal utility to distribute electricity and manage power rates. When the new utility’s managers turned on the first electric streetlight network in Saint John’s Uptown, business owners celebrated the beginning of a new era in commerce.

We know that utility today as Saint John Energy, and we are thankful to have such a strong and innovative local energy company to help drive the city’s success.

The energy requirements of businesses in our region have grown enormously over the past 100 years, and stable and affordable power rates are even more vital to economic development today than they were then. 

We look forward to the clean energy era ahead – powered by the Burchill Wind Energy Project and the other innovative energy initiatives underway in our community. Every new energy project that comes online in the Saint John region is a milestone on the way to meeting the energy imperative of the future.

David Duplisea is CEO of the Saint John Region Chamber of Commerce.