A Nova Scotia government document on the proposed initial phase of the Wind West offshore project pegs the capital cost at $60 billion.
The estimate is contained in the document released Thursday, following Prime Minister Mark Carney’s announcement that Ottawa is prepared to work with Nova Scotia to ramp up the ambitious plan.
According to the document, $40 billion would go to building wind farms and $20 billion would go toward building new transmission lines.
The document does not indicate who would pay for these costs and how they would be divided.
However, the province says Ottawa will have a critical role to play in enabling investments, permits and approvals.
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The document proposal also says the province expects to get a four per cent royalty on production from the offshore energy project.
Nova Scotia will also be looking for assurances that it can access federal investment tax credits and low-interest financing through the Canada Infrastructure Bank.
“Investment incentives and lower borrowing costs are central to bringing costs down and fixing those prices for decades for customers in Quebec, Ontario and Atlantic Canada,” the document says.
Without that help Nova Scotia says the cost of offshore wind energy would come in at an estimated $240 per megawatt-hour, while with tax credits and lower borrowing costs the cost would lower to $170 per megawatt-hour.
The province is also asking for help in engaging with the Mi’kmaq with aid through the Federal Indigenous Loan Guarantee Program, where Ottawa would negotiate and provide funding for participating communities to purchase an equity interest.
Meanwhile, the document proposal identifies two route options to move energy to markets including an overland route via New Brunswick and a subsea route direct to Quebec or New England with the province saying it is “open to either route.”
In July, the province announced that four offshore areas had been designated for offshore wind development. The areas include French Bank, Middle Bank and Sable Island Bank — all south of Nova Scotia’s Eastern Shore — and Sydney Bight, northeast of Cape Breton.
Provincial officials have said the province expects to issue a call for development bids by the end of this year with a goal of licensing five gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030, and some possible construction of offshore turbine sites in 2033.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2025.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
