USA - Nova Scotia power companies buy wind power from businesses and farms

Nova Scotia farmer Mark McCormick loves watching his power meter racking up credits for kilowatts, as the windmill near his dairy barn sends power back onto the utility's power grid. He's taking advantage of a trend among Canadian utilities to allow larger farms and small businesses to sell renewable energy to the power grids - a practice known as net metering. In McCormick's case, when the wind blows off the Bay of Fundy and spins the blades of two wind turbines at his home in Rodney, N.S., power utility Emera Inc. (TSX:EMA) records every kilowatt produced and credits his account.

Oil price shocks in the last few months, coupled with a need for utilities to seek energy forms other than fossil fuels, has boosted interest among the utilities in Nova Scotia, Ontario, British Columbia and elsewhere. In Nova Scotia, NS Power has set a goal of producing 10 megawatts from customers who sell back their renewable energy - enough to power a town of about 2,600 homes. In the past it only allowed customers - mostly homeowners or small farms - with 10 kilowatt units to sell to the system. In Ontario, the province's power generator is seeking alternative sources of electricity generation - from natural gas to biomass, to wind power - as the Liberal government moves ahead with plans to phase out coal-fired plants. Robert Johnson, the manager of renewable energy development at Nova Scotia Power, says the trend will be limited by economics. In most cases, the cost of producing renewable energy is higher than buying from the utility, he said.