Green hydrogen production plants powered by new wind energy projects could progress in Canada’s Atlantic provinces, with a recent agreement announced between the country and Germany to jointly invest about $400 million in subsidies to boost construction of facilities that would manufacture and export the cleaner fuel as ammonia. The investment follows a 2022 hydrogen trade pact by the two countries to push decarbonization, but opponents have raised questions about intended use of the cleaner fuel.
Over the next three years, Nova Scotia-based developer EverWind Fuels said it plans to invest, in two phases, at least $10 billion to build and operate three onshore wind farms in the province, along with a green ammonia facility able to produce 240,000 metric tons per year to start and up to 1 million metric tons per year in its second phase, and an upgraded ice-free deep-water port in Point Tupper, N.S.
The province Environment Ministry in July approved the largest of the three wind farms—a 49-turbine, 340-MW facility estimated to cost $2.5 billion—after OK’ing the others last year. All are set to operate by late 2025, with ammonia production in 2026. Several First Nations also are equity partners in the project, but EverWind has not yet announced its final investment decision.
Concurrenty, EverWind Fuels, Halifax, N.S., began negotiations with what it said are “strategic partners to finalize offtake agreements by the end of 2024,” but company officials declined to confirm they include German energy companies Uniper SE and E.ON SE. The two firms had agreed in 2022 to take a total of 1 million tons annually of the green ammonia produced by adding nitrogen to the hydrogen.
“Canada is a reliable supplier of clean energy for our global allies,” said Jonathan Wilkinson, Canadian minister for energy and natural resources, adding that the agreement “will ensure Germany has access to Canadian clean hydrogen to power their economy, in turn creating jobs and driving economic growth here in Atlantic Canada.”
EverWind Fuels said U.S.-based Black & Veatch completed front-end engineering and design earlier this year for phase one of the Point Tupper project, with construction that could begin late this year. EverWind said the early project design, involving about 110,000 hours of engineering, “represents the first announced completion of a FEED for a large-scale green hydrogen and green ammonia production facility in North America.”
The project’s first phase will use “cutting-edge” electrolyzers and ammonia synthesis technology to convert water from nearby “man-made” Landrie Lake and “primarily” from new wind farms to produce green ammonia. B&V President and CEO Laszlo von Lazar said the facility design also makes it “one of the most advanced hydrogen and ammonia projects in North America and globally.
The engineer also is involved in a second planned EverWind Fuels ammonia plant on the Burin Peninsula in Newfoundland & Labrador, what the developer said would be a larger facility estimated to cost about $C8 billion but with no production capacity details disclosed. Also to be built in the province is a wind project up to 3 GW in capacity that could also include offshore turbines. “Engineering hours that have gone into our Point Tupper project … have been adjusted to reflect the massive size and scale of our project on the Burin Peninsula,” said Trent Vichie, CEO of EverWind Fuels.
Related to the planned onshore wind turbines in Nova Scotia, their growth in height now requires larger and heavier foundations, said Liam Duffy, general manager of construction for builder Renewable Energy Systems Canada Inc., Montreal. “A foundation can require as much as 75 tons of steel and 700 cu meters of concrete at a depth of 4 meters into the ground,” he said, But substantial amounts of hard rock close to the surface at the site will “require a rock anchor foundation to be built,” Duffy noted. The largest of the wind projects will require 650 workers, he said, adding that EverWind Fuels is in negotiations with local unions.
EverWind said it seeks to develop a pipeline of 15GW of renewables across Atlantic Canada and anticipates “making use of various investment tax credits.”
Meanwhile, Nova Scotia project opponents raised concerns at a July community hearing on the projects related to shipping clean energy resources overseas when more than half of the province’s grid power now comes from fossil fuel. EverWind Fuels officials predicted that about 20% to 30% of the plant’s wind power would be returned to the grid and that more local markets would develop for use of its hydrogen and ammonia produced.
Separately, contractor McDermott International announced last month that it was awarded an “early contractor involvement” contract from Abraxas Power Corp. for another commercial-scale Newfoundland hydrogen plant fueled by renewable energy that would include an estimated 3.5-GW wind farm and 150-MW solar facility. The plant would produce 165 kilotons per year of hydrogen and 5,000 metric tons per day of ammonia. Under the contract, with no financial terms disclosed, McDermott services will include front-end engineering; engineering, procurement and construction planning; and cost estimating for project components.
Canada announced its federal hydrogen strategy in 2020, with a focus on low-carbon hydrogen to meet a net-zero emissions goal by 2050 and 80 hydrogen production projects announced since then. But the International Energy Agency said in its latest renewables market report this year that “of [green hydrogen] projects today in the pipeline, only 7% will come on line before 2030.”
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Publish date : 2024-09-02 04:07:00
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