Deadline looms to find buyer for former N.S. wind tower plant

TRENTON, N.S. — Time appears to be running out to find a new operator for a former wind tower manufacturing plant in Nova Scotia developed with $56 million in provincial funding. After a tour Thursday of the former DSME Trenton plant, Business Minister Geoff Maclellan said the province would have to make a decision on what comes next by the end of this fiscal year if a buyer isn’t found.

“We are coming to a point where we have to make a final decision on this,” he said.

Maclellan said possible future steps could include finding buyers for the equipment or, in the worst case scenario, liquidating the plant’s assets. “The best-case scenario for the Pictou County region and for the government and the province is to find a buyer that would operate this (plant) in its totality,” he said. He wouldn’t speculate on the likelihood of that possibility given the time left. “Obviously, we are remaining hopeful,” he said, although he couldn’t give specifics on how many business entities had expressed interest in the plant.

Maclellan said two years into the receivership process and near the end of a second round of bids, it’s costing the province $150,000 a month to keep the plant in operational shape.

The first round of bids was abandoned in late 2016 after the province rejected three, including two of only $1.