Joining Ontario and several U.S. states, the Canadian province of Nova Scotia has proposed a new twist on a common clean energy program.  The policy provides a guaranteed, long-term contract for wind, biomass, hydro, and tidal power producers and offers them the same return on equity provided to utiltiies.

The unique feature of Nova Scotia’s program, however, is that the program is only open to community-owned renewable energy projects.  This is an interesting twist on the “feed-in tariff” concept, which has also been customized by Turkey to provide bonus payments to projects with locally-made materials and by Ontario, which requires 60% of the value of wind and solar projects to originate in the province.

The Nova Scotia program is limited to municipalities, First Nations, co-operatives, local non-profits, as well as small businesses operating through Community Economic Development Investment Funds.  Forthcoming regulations will further detail the ownership requirements.