A tidal turbine slated to be put in the Bay of Fundy this year has been delayed by a few months.
French company Alstom, which is partnered with Clean Current of Vancouver on a test project, said in November its turbine would be deployed in the Bay of Fundy by the middle of this year
But the agency overseeing the Parrsboro-area demonstration project said Wednesday that time frame has changed a bit.
“Alstom is talking about entering the water in the fall,” said Doug Keefe, executive director of the Fundy Ocean Research Centre for Energy.
Officials with Alstom, which has an office in Sorel-Tracy, Que., couldn’t be reached Wednesday for an update.
Keefe said capital projects needed to connect turbines to the grid continue this winter and will be completed by May.
Construction of a new electrical substation, funded by research centre, is almost done and Nova Scotia Power is also working on an overhead transmission line.
Later in the year, an underwater cable will be installed at four berth sites in the Minas Passage shortly before Alstom deploys.
IT International Telecom, the Halifax company doing the installation, will conduct dry runs of the cable lay in the coming months.
Two other turbines are slated to go in the water in 2013.
Minas Basin Pulp and Power of Hantsport and partner Marine Current Turbines of Bristol, England, plan to deploy their device, as do Atlantis Resources of London, England, and partners Lockheed Martin Canada and Halifax’s Irving Shipbuilding.
The province will seek a fourth berth holder this spring after Nova Scotia Power gave up its spot in the demonstration project.
