The Annapolis Royal Generating Station was a tidal power generating station in the

Bay of Fundy The Bay of Fundy (french: Baie de Fundy) is a bay between the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, with a small portion touching the U.S. state of Maine. It is an arm of the Gulf of Maine. Its extremely high tidal range is th ...

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native En ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...

. When operational, it was the only tidal generating station in North America and was one of the few in the world. Located upstream of Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia, it generated about 30 million

kilowatt hour A kilowatt-hour ( unit symbol: kW⋅h or kW h; commonly written as kWh) is a unit of energy: one kilowatt of power for one hour. In terms of SI derived units with special names, it equals 3.6 megajoules (MJ). Kilowatt-hours are a common bi ...

s per year, enough for 4500 houses. Peak output was 20 megawatts. The station was shut down in April 2019, after the Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat found substantial fish mortality caused by the turbine, and a crucial component failed within the generating system. For example, research from the 1980s showed almost one quarter of the American shad passing through were killed. The station operated 34 years, mostly with minimal regulatory scrutiny. A

causeway A causeway is a track, road or railway on the upper point of an embankment across "a low, or wet place, or piece of water". It can be constructed of earth, masonry, wood, or concrete. One of the earliest known wooden causeways is the Sweet ...

on the Annapolis River created a

reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including control ...

which powered a water turbine.

Sluice Sluice ( ) is a word for a channel controlled at its head by a movable gate which is called a sluice gate. A sluice gate is traditionally a wood or metal barrier sliding in grooves that are set in the sides of the waterway and can be considered ...

gates in the causeway allowed the reservoir to be refilled by the incoming tide, and retain the water in the reservoir when the tide recedes. Power was only generated when the tide was out, for about five hours, twice a day. Construction began in 1980, and it opened in 1984. It was constructed by Nova Scotia Power, at the time a provincial

crown corporation A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a government entity which is established or nationalised by the ''national government'' or ''provincial government'' by an executive order or an act of legislation in order to earn profit for the governmen ...

. The decision to build the facility was partly prompted by the promise of federal funding for this alternative energy project, and the existence of a rock-filled causeway which had been built on the Annapolis River in 1960 by the Maritime Marshlands Reclamation Authority to block the Bay of Fundy tides from entering the river to replace the function of the existing dykes along the river banks. The causeway housed the power house and

sluice Sluice ( ) is a word for a channel controlled at its head by a movable gate which is called a sluice gate. A sluice gate is traditionally a wood or metal barrier sliding in grooves that are set in the sides of the waterway and can be considered ...

gates. The blocking of water flow by the causeway has resulted in increased river bank erosion on both the upstream and downstream sides. The causeway is also known as a trap for marine life. In 2004, a mature

humpback whale The humpback whale (''Megaptera novaeangliae'') is a species of baleen whale. It is a rorqual (a member of the family Balaenopteridae) and is the only species in the genus ''Megaptera''. Adults range in length from and weigh up to . The hum ...

swam through the open sluice gate at slack tide, ending up trapped for several days in the upper part of the river before eventually finding its way out.

References

{{Portal, Canada, Water, Renewable energy Energy infrastructure completed in 1984 Nova Scotia Power Tidal barrages Tidal power stations in Nova Scotia Buildings and structures in Annapolis County, Nova Scotia