Group floats idea of renewable energy park
Business Potential exists for project to expand into research and development sectors
Tammy Scott-Wallace
Telegraph-Journal
Published Saturday May 12th, 2007
Appeared on page B8
The gas-driven Energy Park concept for Sussex may have died months ago, but now a group of residents is pushing the envelope for an idea they believe could highlight the region as the most environmentally-responsible business community in the province.

Beth Nixon, who chairs the Fundy Renewable Energy Park Action Committee, said plans are in the works to develop the Fundy Green Park clustered with businesses that specialize in projects and practices that have a positive environmental impact.

This would be the first renewable energy park in Atlantic Canada and situated somewhere in or around Sussex. The location is still being negotiated.

"There's so much potential," she said of the project. The committee envisions a multitude of businesses with similar environmental consciousness lumped together to share resources from renewable energy to expertise in its science and marketing.

And it imagines the park drawing new businesses.

"When you're attracting business from places like Europe, there's a big consciousness there now about the environment," Nixon explained.

"If a business owner, even a small business owner, sees the value of being with like individuals with like goals in regards to the environment, that could be a really big benefit to this region."

In the nineties, Enterprise Network recommended that a large industrial user of natural gas, if located near its source in Penobsquis, could keep some of the resource here for the benefit of the province.

Nixon said while negotiations still look good to have natural gas piped here, a broader vision to include all environmentally-friendly energies will be an even bigger drawing card.

As it stands the pipeline to transport the gas to the Maritimes and Northeast Pipeline beginning in June doesn't go through Sussex.

Business New Brunswick didn't buy into the idea of an Energy Park for Sussex and a study by ADI determined that large industrial plants wouldn't be drawn to the area on the promise of lower cost natural gas alone.

Nixon said the Fundy Green Park's new-concept renewable energy park can make big waves and Sussex is the perfect location for it.

"There is some scepticism, but overall people are concerned about the most basic things like their water and this all ties in to evolving practices that are positive for the environment," she said. "We're known as hard workers. We have the resources here and we have the people here to create innovative, well paying jobs that are interesting to folks.

"When you look at bio-energies alone that come from feed stock, that creates real opportunity for the agricultural and forestry industries.

"If this region of New Brunswick doesn't know forestry and agriculture, I don't know what it knows," the chairperson added.

The action committee has developed into a not-for-profit co-operative and is now selling shares for $25 each (four are needed for membership) to solidify a support base.

Nixon said their intent is to develop a business park that looks like most other industrial parks that use renewable energy sources like solar, wind, small or low-impact hydropower and bio mass - which is energy created from organic materials like wood, plant material and landfill gases.

The park could also serve as a base for renewable energy research and development projects, she added.

The goal will be to lump together clients who use energy sources with little to no negative impact on the environment.

They can be manufacturers of the energy and the components needed to use it, or any other business that wants to use the alternate energy option for their day-to-day business.

"We can see brokering within the park with the right tenants and the right mix," Nixon shared.

"If someone uses two-by-fours, maybe the guy next door would be making wood pellets from the waste," she said as an example, "or maybe one business will manufacture a type of energy a business next door needs."

Nixon said with the market for energy generated from renewable sources poised to grow in the next few years, she believes it will offer the same opportunities that IT and the Internet did 15 to 20 years ago.

The Fundy Renewable Energy Park Action Committee will hold a public meeting to discuss plans for the park and shareholder options on June 5, from 5-9 p.m. at All Seasons Restaurant.