New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt is trying to sell the province as an energy powerhouse at this week’s premiers’ meeting in Charlottetown.
While there is broad agreement that more electricity will be needed to grow the economy, experts are divided on the best way to produce it.
“New Brunswick is an energy leader because we have diversified sources of energy,” Holt said Wednesday.
She says the province’s energy infrastructure should be central to economic growth. That infrastructure includes nuclear, hydroelectric power, and its transmission connections across Atlantic Canada, Quebec and the northeastern United States.
Holt adds she’s also open to hyperscale AI data centres, but only if they meet certain conditions.
“(They have to be) net neutral to the cost of power to New Brunswickers. And that’s one of the conditions,” she said.
Meeting that demand would require more electricity.
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NB Power says it already relies on independent producers for about 14 per cent of its current needs and warns that electricity demand is rising faster than expected.
William Cook, director of the University of New Brunswick’s Centre for Nuclear Energy Research, says expanding the grid is no longer a question of choice.
“I don’t think practicality really has much to do with it at this point, it’s a function of necessity,” he said.
He notes the Point Lepreau Nuclear Generation Station currently supplies roughly one-third of New Brunswick’s electricity.
To keep the lights on, he says the province will need to keep up with not only New Brunswickers’ demands, but also neighbouring provinces connected to the grid.
How to do that, however, is where opinions differ.
“Expanding our energy grid is a great idea, as long as we’re focusing on clean, renewable energy, such as wind and solar,” said Beverly Gingras, executive director of Conservation Council of NB.
Cook sees it differently.
“Our only two options if we want to meet our mandates and close down the use of coal burning … is either natural gas or large-scale nuclear plants,” he said.
The Conservation Council argues expanding hydroelectricity can flood land and disrupt ecosystems, while nuclear raises concerns about radioactive waste and long-term environmental impacts.
But Cook argues wind and solar aren’t reliable enough, and that nuclear has provided reliable low greenhouse-gas electricity in the province for decades.
The same sentiment extends to AI data centres, he adds.
“Data centres are going to become more and more necessary. So we have to support them and supporting them in an economical and an environmentally-friendly way is I think what we need to do,” he said.
Gringas counters that there’s “very little benefit” to them.
“They do have a lot of potential environmental and human health costs, and you know, communities see very little benefit from having these centres,” she said.
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