Christopher Huskilson is pretty modest about the work he’s done—“everyone is focused on cleaning up their energy system,” he recently told an audience of energy-conference attendees. But 58-year-old multiple-generation bluenoser from Shelburne, Nova Scotia, isn’t like everyone else.
Huskilson is president and CEO of Halifax, Nova Scotia-based Emera, a diverse energy services company that is steadily working to cut energy waste and transform the region’s electricity system. Its $10 billion balance sheet includes holdings in electricity generation, transmission and distribution across Atlantic Canada, New England, and the Caribbean. It’s the parent company of Nova Scotia Power.
Huskilson started with Nova Scotia Power 35 years ago, working as a software engineer trying to develop tidal power in the Bay of Fundy. In 2004, he took the company’s helm. “We believed clean energy was the way forward, and we’ve been working on that ever since,” he said. A decade later, Emera’s assets have jumped $6 billion.
Case in point: The $8.6 billion federally backed Lower Churchill Project will deliver five terrawatts of hydroelectricity from Newfoundland and Labrador. Maritime Link, Emera’s $2 billion portion of the project, will add 1,800 km of overland and undersea transmission and will help Nova Scotia and New England kick coal off the wires.
Huskilson is also leading the charge on Cape Sharp Tidal, a coalition working to deploy a fully grid connected 4MW tidal array in the Bay of Fundy in 2015.
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