Wind West Atlantic Energy

Company Profile

The Province of Nova Scotia is located on Canada’s east coast, with an offshore area home to one of the best offshore wind resources in the world, and ample room to develop hundreds of gigawatts of offshore wind.

The Province of Nova Scotia is advancing the Wind West project, which will be a private sector led initiative. Wind West builds on Nova Scotia’s offshore energy experience, electricity-system transition, port and marine capabilities, and ongoing federal-provincial collaboration to establish Canada’s first large-scale offshore wind industry.  

Nova Scotia has already worked with Canada and private sector partners on clean-energy transmission, onshore wind, battery storage, regulatory modernization and offshore-energy governance, and is now applying that experience to a generational clean-energy and economic-development opportunity.  

The Province’s role is to create the enabling conditions for private capital: clear seabed-licensing processes, early resource and transmission studies, Indigenous and stakeholder engagement, market development, fiscal and financing tools, and coordination with domestic and export customers. Wind West is designed to unlock private-sector participation across generation, transmission, port readiness, supply-chain development, operations and long-term clean-electricity exports. 

Project Profile

Wind West is a nation-building offshore wind and transmission initiative intended to harness Nova Scotia’s exceptional offshore wind resource and connect it to energy markets in Atlantic Canada, Quebec, Ontario and potentially the northeastern United States.  

The first phase is up to 5,000 MW of offshore wind generation, producing ~24 TWh of clean electricity annually. The project combines offshore generation and high-voltage direct current transmission to deliver the resource to markets with growing demand.  

Wind West is at the procurement phase and has attracted the interest of global energy companies (developers), , institutional investors, infrastructure partners, utilities, transmission developers, port operators and supply-chain participants. The near-term focus is de-risking: completing studies, advancing the Call for Bids process, engaging qualified proponents and off-takers, designing transmission pathways, and securing the federal support required to reduce costs and build investor confidence.

Progress to date has included:

• Extensive stakeholder consultation and a regional environmental assessment process.
• Pre-qualification of more than 8 proponents for the upcoming submerged land license process, including industry leaders like DEME Concessions, Jan De Nul, and Northland Power.  
• A request for information initiated by Hydro Quebec seeking information from potential proponents on Nova Scotia’s offshore resource and transmission options to deliver offshore wind to Quebec.  This RFI resulted in submissions from multiple global energy companies.
• Ongoing and regular discussion to co-ordinate Hydro Quebec potential procurement with Wind West.
• A Memorandum of Understanding with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts on offshore wind 

Investor Highlights

Clean energy:

• Type / source (wind, solar, hydrogen):  Offshore wind (fixed bottom)
• Production capacity: 5GW, ~24TWh/a
• Offtake agreements: No (early analysis underway for multiple potential markets, including Quebec, New England, and New York)
• Project Development Timelines: Anticipated in service date of 2035  

Investor Snapshot

Asset: Offshore renewable energy and high voltage DC transmission 

Project development: Feasibility/pre-development 

Milestones: Regional environmental assessment completed in 2025, wind energy areas (areas available for licensing) identified in 2025, pre-qualification of companies eligible to participate in the forthcoming offshore call for bids process completed June 2026 

CAPEX: Early estimated capital costs for generation and transmission ~$60B/CAD. The project size for this estimate was 5GW of offshore wind and multiple HVDC cables with an estimated length of 800km.   

Internal rate of return (IRR): Modeled costs assumed an IRR in line with industry standards for renewable energy and transmission investments.  

Seeking investment: There are expected to be opportunities for a variety of investors, project partners and investment mechanisms, including equity, debt, and project finance.