CDN NEWS | 
US NEWS 
The turbines have proprietary tech that allows them to operate in temperatures as low as -30 C
A Nova Scotia paper mill is spending $450 million to construct North America’s biggest wind turbines, massive structures with technology to withstand Canadian winters.
Port Hawkesbury Paper Inc.’s project will see up to 31 giant wind turbines built in the eastern part of the province and supply more than 60 per cent of the mill’s annual energy load.
Turbines for the wind farm are being supplied by Nordex SE, a global wind energy company based in Hamburg, Germany.
“A project at this scale, it’s important for us to do it right,” said Jay Woodworth, director of business development for Port Hawkesbury Paper, which consumes as much as 25 per cent of the provincial electricity grid’s power during peak demand.
“The turbines that we are bringing in . . . will give us a bit of an advantage when we’re dealing with the cold climate.”
Designed differently than turbines that froze
Nova Scotia learned a lesson about wind turbines and cold snaps the hard way.
In January, when the wind chill dipped below –30 C, Nova Scotia Power Inc. customers were asked to avoid non-essential electricity usage during peak demand periods.
Turbines were generating 350 megawatts that Sunday morning, but by evening, generation dropped to 75 megawatts.
The electricity demand nearly pushed the grid to overload.
The Nordex turbines being built for Port Hawkesbury Paper’s Goose Harbour Lake project are designed to operate in temperatures as low as -30 C.
Electrothermal technology prevents ice from forming on the blades and will heat critical areas of the rotor surface.
John McComas, chief operating officer of Nordex’s North American operations, said the turbines have been heavily deployed in Canadian projects, specifically in Nova Scotia and Quebec, for projects starting in 2026 like Goose Harbour Lake.
“I know how cold it can get there. I was there just a couple of weeks ago, so I experienced it firsthand,” McComas, who resides in the suburbs of Chicago.
“This is a technology that’s proprietary to us, something that sets us apart from the rest of our competitors, that actively eliminates ice on the blades.”
That is critical, he explained, because ice creates additional weight and can effectively shut a turbine down.
“With this system in place, it allows our turbines, in conditions that are commonly found in Nova Scotia, certainly Eastern Canada, to continuously produce. This benefits the developer but, most importantly, the ratepayer because electricity prices tend to go up when the weather is coldest.”
Turbine specs
The N163/6.X turbines under construction are 163 metres in diameter on a 118-metre steel tower. The diameter is equivalent to one-and-a-half football fields. The tower height is around the same as a 40 storey building.
Each turbine is capable of generating up to 6.9 megawatts.
“Bigger is better, especially as you’re trying to capture that wind,” McComas said, explaining the larger the rotor, the more opportunities to capture the wind and turn the rotor.
“One of the benefits of having a bigger rotor, you’re effectively taking the energy that’s submitted to the turbine by wind and translating that into kinetic force, just like a sailboat. The larger the sail, the more wind you can ultimately capture and transfer that into kinetic energy to make something move.”
Nordex has older-model turbines in Saskatchewan and Alberta generating over a gigawatt of power.
But future projects will utilize the N163s, including two farms in Quebec, another in New Brunswick and the Higgins Mountain Wind Farm Project in central Nova Scotia.
The latter will feature 17 turbines that will provide 100 megawatts of clean electricity to the grid.
“(Goose Harbour Lake) was set up to ensure the sustainability of the mill for future generations,” Woodworth said. “We’re a very large economic provider in the area, and this ensures not only the sustainability of the mill and the economy that goes with that but also helps to contribute to greening the grid.”
Share This:
