BATTLEMANS BEACH || POINT ACONI || CAPE BRETON ISLAND || Electrifying Views!!

SEASON 2 (2024) - EPISODE 01 - Battlemans Beach is located on the north end of Boularderie Island which is part of Cape Breton Island (Nova Scotia, Canada) only 35 minutes from the Big Fiddle in Sydney NS. The beach has a stunning view of the Cabot Strait and Cape Smokey in the far distance.

The grounds are clean and well maintained, including picnic tables and a viewing scope. Despite having the Point Aconi Generating Station as its neighbor, the beach is popular on hot summer days.

The water here is said to be a little warmer because 1000m off shore a pipe takes in seawater to cool the power plant’s boiler, and warm water is expelled. The water is not contaminated – it just runs through a circuit of pipes and it returned to the ocean. It is a once-through circulating seawater intake-outfall system. Seawater is drawn from 3,300 feet offshore at a depth of 36 feet through a velocity cap intake structure. A tunnel 130 feet below the seabed connects the offshore velocity cap to the onshore pump house.

The Point Aconi Generating Station was built over a period of 4 years between 1990 and 1994. January 1st 1995 the plant began commercial operation. It is Nova Scotia Power’s newest and said to be the most environmentally progressive thermal generating station – it uses special technology called Circulating Fluidized Bed (CFB) to reduce sulphur emissions, as well it uses filters to capture particulates like fly ash. It was built in this exact location due to its proximity to a coal mine down the road called the Prince Colliery. The intention was to burn local Cape Breton coal. However, the boiler was plagued with problems (erosion, corrosion, and fouling) for first many years. It was discovered the coal from Prince Mine was unsuitable for this plant – due to high chlorine content. The Prince Mine closed in 2001. After major modifications, the generating station now burns a blend of 80% petroleum coke and 20% imported coal. The Point Aconi generating station is expected to close in 2029.

Another fun fact, this is the landing site for the Maritime Link subsea cables from Newfoundland. The Maritime Link was built to supply Nova Scotia with renewable hydroelectric power from Muskrat Falls in Labrador. The Maritime Link consists of two subsea cables that run 170 km across the Cabot Strait between Cape Ray, NL and Point Aconi, NS with the capacity to carry 500 MW of electricity. Nova Scotia Power says construction of the Maritime Link was completed in 2017 and the first shipment of hydroelectric energy delivered to the Nova Scotia took place in August 2021.

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📺 ABOUT THIS CHANNEL - In 2023 I decided it would be fun to try to visit all the beaches on Cape Breton Island. I read somewhere there are around 80. I don’t know how long this will take - I’m just gonna go one by one.


📷 GEAR:
Camera: iPhone and GoPro
Microphone: Blue Yeti
Video Editing Software: Wondershare Filmora 13
Thumbnails: Typorama iPhone app
Music: Epidemic Sound


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REFERENCES:

About the Point Aconi Generating Station and Nova Scotia Power:
https://www.gem.wiki/Point_Aconi_Gene...

Nova Scotia Power's Point Aconi plant overcomes CFB design problems to become rock of reliability
https://www.powermag.com/nova-scotia-...

Nova Scotia Power is required to generate 80% of its power from renewable sources by 2030, but can it?
https://www.halifaxexaminer.ca/econom...

NS Power
https://www.nspower.ca/about-us/produ...

Phase-Out Plans
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-s...

Bituminous coal :
https://energyeducation.ca/encycloped...

DISCUSSIONS IN THE CANADIAN SENATE :
https://sencanada.ca/en/Content/Sen/c...

MARITIME LINK:
https://www.emeranl.com/maritime-link...

https://www.emeranl.com/maritime-link...

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-s...