Posted on February 25, 2026
Premier Tim Houston tabled new legislation Tuesday that lays out what offshore wind developers will be expected to pay the province to operate and the charge is lower than was initially advertised.
Nova Scotia plans to ask offshore wind developers to pay the province $7,000 per megawatt of their turbines’ capacity each year for the first ten years of operation. Under the first phase of development, during which the province is aiming for up to five gigawatts, that would add up to $35 million for provincial coffers each year.
The Houston government had floated the idea of charging a four per cent royalty on gross revenue last year as part of its broader offshore wind plan.
Energy Department officials said under current power rates, they estimate that royalty would bring about $100 million into the province each year.
“There’s a needle to be thread there because we don’t want to be too aggressive on that,” Houston told reporters after tabling the bill.
He said asking too much could scare developers away.
“But we also want to send a message that our expectation is that there’s a direct benefit for Nova Scotians,” he added.
Houston said he also expects benefits through economic spinoffs from the fledgling industry including the creation of new jobs and supply chains.
Energy Department officials said economic modelling is underway to better understand the potential value of all aspects of the offshore wind industry but they could not provide details.
After the first ten years, the fee to developers could stay at $7,000 per megawatt or shift to a percentage of gross revenue, whichever is greater.
The gross revenue royalty would be set later in regulations, but the province is considering sticking with their earlier target of four per cent, officials said.
Ensuring industry’s success
David Miller, executive director of energy planning, said the levy that’s proposed in the new bill is about giving developers “commercial stability.”
“Any costs or fees will be passed on to the ultimate customers, so ensuring that this energy that is generated is attractive to other markets is really critical to having the industry succeed,” Miller told reporters at a bill briefing.
The bill lays the groundwork for other fees to be finalized through regulation, including a refundable $250,000 charge for making a bid for a licence and a non-refundable charge of $750,000 for successful bidders.
NDP Leader Claudia Chender said the government is too focused on “carrots to the private sector,” and the proposed levy doesn’t seem to be enough.
“We are talking about a massive project to sell energy to America,” she said, referring to a recent memorandum of understanding signed with Massachussetts.
“Not to help us with our own energy needs, not to help us with our own energy bills, not to help us with our climate commitments. The least we could expect is to have government revenue that will help us pay for services.”
The first give gigawatts of offshore wind power is expected to be mostly or completely exported. The price of offshore wind energy is high relative to what Nova Scotia pays for generation currently, but the Houston government is banking on the price coming down so that down the road it may be practical to use some offshore energy domestically.
A call for bids for licences for up to five gigawatts is expected in the coming months.
Interim Liberal Leader Iain Rankin said he think Nova Scotia should have an equity stake for Nova Scotians.
“Beyond what fees are going to be charged to [develop] the resource, we need to find a way that we actually have some ownership for the province,” he said.
The new offshore wind legislation is one piece of an omnibus bill that addresses other aspects of the province’s energy system and the ongoing push for increased natural resource development.
The province intends to repeal the Petroleum Resources Act and replace it with the Subsurface Energy Resource Extraction Act. The new act will continue to regulate oil and natural gas extraction, and it will fill a void for regulating four other areas: geothermal, natural hydrogen, helium and carbon storage.
There are several companies exploring for natural hydrogen, also known as white or geologic hydrogen, in Cumberland County.
Kim Doane, executive director of energy resource development, said there are existing geothermal energy projects, but nothing in the works for helium and carbon storage.
“This is anticipating those and making a regulatory framework for them for that emerging opportunity in the future,” said Doane.
The bill extends the timeline for transitioning management of the power grid from Nova Scotia Power to the Independent Energy System Operator (IESO) from October 2026 to May 1, 2028.
Miller said the extension was partly to ensure the transition didn’t happen “under unfavourable conditions such as a winter period or during particularly challenging storm seasons.” He said it also gives more time to meet compliance requirements with its international regulator, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation.
It also shifts responsibility for hitting 80 per cent renewable energy by 2030 from Nova Scotia Power to the IESO.
