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HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA Saturday March 25, 2006





ATEC Power goes with flowFirm hopes
turbines will drive Bay of Fundy tidal power
By JUDY MYRDEN
Business Reporter
A Windsor company wants to harness the Bay of Fundy’s immense tidal power to generate electricity.
ATEC Power Inc. has reached an agreement with an American company, UEK Corp., to use its tidal turbine technology to build and use these underwater turbines in Atlantic Canada.
The firm wants to start testing the tidal turbines, pending provincial government approval, and begin sea trials in 2007.
"We think that this particular technology is very sound, from the standpoint of both its efficiency and being environmentally friendly," Trevor Hughes, ATEC Power president, a lawyer and president of Evangeline Securities, said Thursday.
The turbines were designed and patented by a Canadian inventor, Philippe Vauthier, at the company’s operations in Annapolis, Md.
The UEK twin turbine is similar to operating an Underwater Electric Kite — source of the acronym that forms the company’s name and logo. The firm’s website says the turbine moves like a kite anchored to the bottom by a cable and controlled by a computer; it rises or descends searching for the layer of water where the tidal current runs fastest.
Mr. Hughes said the high cost of oil to generate electricity, along with the advent of new turbine technology, has made the project feasible.
The company, founded in 2005 with private investors, hopes someday to sell its tidally generated electricity to Nova Scotia Power and stabilize power rates.
But NSP spokeswoman Glennie Langille said the company just learned of the company’s proposal and had no further comment.
NSP operates the only tidal power facility in the Bay of Fundy, at the Annapolis Tidal Generating Station at Annapolis Royal, which produces enough electricity for 3,000 homes and has been in operation for almost 20 years.
Preliminary tidal current studies by ATEC Power show the most favourable site for tidal power generation is Minas Passage between Cape Split and Cape Blomidon.
The company plans to conduct site mapping and evaluation studies this spring and summer, upon receiving provincial government permits.
The Bay of Fundy has among the highest and most powerful tides in the world.
These tides have been in the news recently with the announcement that Nova Scotia and New Brunswick have joined Maine, Massachusetts, Alaska, Washington and California to pay $425,000 for a study on the viability of tidal current power in the waters bordering these provinces and states.
Another local energy company, Maritime Tidal Energy Inc., wants to produce power by using marine turbines.
( jmyrden@herald.ca)