ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — World Energy GH2 has submitted an environmental impact statement (EIS) to the Department of Environment and Climate Change regarding its proposal to construct and operate two onshore wind farms on the west coast of Newfoundland, with the associated transmission and supporting infrastructure to power a hydrogen/ammonia production facility in the Port of Stephenville.
The government announced Tuesday that the EIS was filed.
The department is seeking public comments on the EIS, a document that describes the project and provides an overview of the potential environmental effects of all phases of the project.
Project overview
According to the EIS, the project entails development and operation of a hydrogen/ammonia plant with an electrolyzer capacity of 1,200 MW (i.e., electrolytic hydrogen and ammonia production facility) located at the Port of Stephenville. The facility will produce green hydrogen via electrolysis, using renewable electricity to split water int hydogn and oxygen.
The hydrogen produced at the facility will then be converted into ammonia and exported to international markets by ship, as transporting hydrogen over long distances is most cost-effective in the form of green ammonia. Given the intermittent nature of wind power, the hydrogen/ammonia plant is expected to run at a capacity factor of approximately 50 per cent, resulting in maximum production of up to approximately 206,000 tonnes of green hydrogen per year.
The 1,200 MW hydrogen/ammonia plant will have the ability to be expanded in the future to approximately 1,800 MW, thereby resulting in maximum production of up to approximately 309,000 tonnes of green hydrogen per year.
Wind farms
Renewable energy from two onshore wind farms on the western coast of Newfoundland, each with a capacity of approximately 1 GW, will be used to power the hydrogen and ammonia production processes.
The Port au Port wind farm is currently planned to include up to 164 wind turbines on the Prt auPor Peninsula and adjacently on the Newfoundland “mainland” (northeast of the isthmus at Port au Port).
The Codroy wind farm is also currently planned to consist of up to 164 wind turbines located on Crown land in the Anguille Mountains.
The modelling and assessment work is based on preliminary layouts for both wind farm sites — 171 potential turbine locations at the Port au Port wind farm and 143 potential turbine locations at Codroy wind farm. Both wind farms will require a network of new and upgraded access roads for transportation of project components and equipment, as well as interconnection of the wind turbine locations within the respective wind farm sites.
An electrical collector system (a network of 34.5 kilovolt transmission lines) will interconnect the wind turbines at each of the wind farm sites to transformer substations owned by the project.
The layouts for the wind farms and supporting infrastructure will be dependent on results of the ongoing wind campaign and mre detiledfield investigations. Once the layout and number of turbines are finalized, the results of models will be reviewed and updated as required.