Hawboldt Industries secures $4.7M deal with tidal power project

A third Nova Scotia company has secured a deal with the Cape Sharp Tidal project.

Chester-based Hawboldt Industries has been awarded a $4.7-million contract to design and manufacture three heavy lift winches for the French-owned OpenHydro and Emera, to develop Nova Scotia's tidal industry.

"This is an important opportunity for our business," John Huxtable the general manager of Hawboldt Industries, said in a statement.

"Cape Sharp Tidal is a major project for our region and we're happy our local expertise will be right there on the water as part of it."

Cape Sharp Tidal hopes to "deliver one of the world's first tidal arrays, with the deployment and grid connection of two 16-metre turbines in the Bay of Fundy, each capable of generating two megawatts of electricity" off Parrsboro later this year.

The project should ramp up in phases with a goal of producing 300 megawatts in the 2020s.

"We're pleased to award another contract to a Nova Scotia company after a competitive tender," said James Ives, the chief executive officer of OpenHydro.

"We're developing local expertise here, which will be crucial as we move into larger projects and lay the foundations of a tidal industry."

Chris Huskilson, the president and CEO of Emera, said his company is committed to awarding 70 per cent of the project costs locally.

"This contract with Hawboldt is a great example of the positive benefits this project can bring to local companies," he said.

Last month, Aecon Group Inc. and Lengkeek Vessel Engineering secured $25 million in contracts as part of the first round of procurement for Cape Sharp Tidal.

At its Dartmouth and Pictou County facilities, Aecon will fabricate turbine components and develop a 1,150-tonne capacity barge which will be used to deploy turbines on the sea floor.

Dartmouth-based Lengkeek was awarded the contract for design of the barge.