Locations
A new open-access data platform launched by Stantec (STN-T) and its client, Net Zero Atlantic, aims to support offshore wind development in Atlantic Canada by bringing together data on wind resources, environmental constraints, economic potential, electrical grids and infrastructure.
“Good decisions start with that ability to connect a lot of different data sources, and sometimes those data sources aren’t very easy to find," Peter Nearing, principal, senior energy management consultant with Stantec said to TechNX during an interview.
"This platform makes it easier for all those different stakeholders to access it, and it brings it all together right from the start to help with that energy planning.”
The open-access, geospatial data platform will offer wind power developers and other stakeholders the information on a wide variety of areas, he explained.
“The platform has — not only wind resource data — but other technical data; economic potential data for the region, environmental considerations. You can go through it and see environmental constraints in the region, and also grid data, grid-integration data, and other infrastructure considerations.”
The data was compiled from a study, entitled Atlantic Canada Offshore Wind Grid Integration and Transmission Study, published by Net Zero Atlantic. It looked at the potential for projects in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador.
Two-year long effort
The project took around two years to complete, according to Nearing. “It takes all data that you would need to do clean energy development for a variety of stakeholders for the region.”
And depending on the stakeholder, it can be accessed for multiple uses.
“So from a developer standpoint, maybe they’re interested in a certain offshore region to develop a certain clean energy investment, or you might have academia who looks at it more from doing a certain type of study on, whether it be clean energy development, or some of those other economic potential studies,” Nearing said.
It can be helpful to “everybody from utilities, renewable developers, regulators, academia, communities, governments, so quite a wide range of stakeholders for the region. Essentially anybody that is a stakeholder in clean energy development in Canada,” he said.
Stantec is based in Edmonton and works in sustainable engineering, architecture and environmental consulting. It has more than 34,000 employees and over 450 locations around the world. In its most recent financial statement, its net revenue for Q2 was $1.8 billion, representing an increase of 11.5 per cent compared to Q2 2025.
Halifax-based Net Zero Atlantic is a non-profit organization of “scientists, engineers and program managers,” according to its website, that is responding to climate change. It is funded from fees paid by clients, and also relies on other funding sources such as governments.
Aim of ‘de-risking projects’
For Stantec, the project’s “goal was really to, with this good foundation of data, understand where opportunities for clean energy existed; what considerations may be needed, what infrastructure may be needed, how that offshore wind could be effectively developed, with the aim of de-risking projects early on with that significant source of digitized data,” Nearing said.
By offering the publicly accessible and free data, the firm hopes to further the development of clean energy in the region. “Energy planning in general is just increasingly as much about data challenge as it is an engineering challenge.”
For Nearing, he is hoping the database will become a “trusted common reference point for this type of clean energy planning and it would be great to, in the future, see it informing that investment (and) energy planning, development conversations, and ultimately help move those projects from plans to reality,” he said.
“As energy systems become more complex, digital tools like these will really help with bringing that transparency; bringing collaboration with other stakeholders.”
Industry Events
Locations
