Taking the Canadian ocean energy sector to Ottawa was a bit of a gamble in the face of political uncertainty, but the decision was that the sector needs a higher level of visibility in the political arena. Advertisements in the Hill Times and mailed invitation cards to senators and MP's got us 80 acceptances to the Parliament Hill reception. The Senate Energy and Environment committee, charged with a report on Canada's energy vision and strategy, held a hearing for an OREG team of six, extended their hearing session and indicated an interest in knowing more. Informal and social contacts by the OREG team included Ministers Raitt, Prentice and Flaherty; and Minister Raitt spoke the morning Day 2. Participants were enthusiastic that new political relationships were made.

 

Canada-UK relationships have included the OREG-BWEA and OREG-REA association affiliations, Canada-UK collaboration meetings largely focused around R,D&D collaboration and support and profiling Canada at the All-Energy trade show and conference. Ottawa provided the opportunity for the long-planned Scottish Development International mission. A  full day workshop at the British High Commission was a well attended side event that may well launch collaborative Canada/Scotland effort in emerging ocean energy marketplaces.

 

Day 1  was kicked off with OREG proposing discussion of a roadmap to a 2050 sector capacity of 15,000MW as a mechanism to focus on the challenges that the scale of development presents and the urgency to begin a process that can build the industrial capacity  needed. Canada's place in the world of ocean energy and the emerging R&D base were highlighted as a foundation that should be exploited while the opportunities remain.

 

The potential value of ocean energy to the electricity sector was a topic revisited during this day that was partially update and partially an opportunity to educate government participants new to the sector. The recent Redpoint research for the BWEA on electricity system diversity was reviewed and similar considerations from the Maritimes led to a proposal that electricity from marine energy might have intrinsic values that exceed that of other renewables. The longer-term interest of Nova Scotia Power was emphasised and the event was an opportunity to publicly launch an Alternative and Emerging Energy Strategy by BC Hydro. Both of these presentations drew attention to the two Clean Energy Fund proposals that have been endorsed by OREG as critical enabling mechanisms.

 

Reviews of tidal, wave and in-stream potential took the rest of Day 1.
 

Minister Raitts appearance in Day 2 was a first for OREG and has helped bring ocean energy closer to the Minister's agenda, eliciting a public declaration that OREG should be part of her November 4th roundtable. The remainder of the day was an effort to broaden horizons; energy and clean attribute trading, Canada/US connections, European opportunities and potential for Canada/Scots collaborations. The potential to consider ocean energy as part of marine infrastructure development raises a different way of looking at project costs, finance and development. The pioneering of a regulator roundtable process in Nova Scotia opens a different approach as we aspire to a learn by doing adaptive management approach.

 

The final working session looked at the rationale behind investments made by SDTC, Emera and Alstom and provided some early hints on how ocean energy may be moved from pioneer technology development toward an industry.

 

One hundred of OREG's family went to Ottawa. All the feedback suggests that they told a positive and constructive story and presented a credible progress upon which delivery of 15,000MW could be based.