To help a green energy project currently under construction, Export Development Canada is committing to $125 million in funding.
EverWind Fuels said its $6 billion, 1 million tonnes per year green hydrogen and green ammonia project in Point Tupper, Richmond Co., is on track to become Atlantic Canada’s first green ammonia production facility in 2025.
Noting it will be the first company to also produce green hydrogen, EverWind said its wind turbine farm will be the largest in the western hemisphere when complete.
“What brought us here today is, I think, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to be a global leader in clean energy,” said Trent Vichie, chief executive officer and founder of EverWind. “I’m working from knowledge; I’m working from having gone down to the studs of what this is going to take, and it is absolutely doable here and that’s why we’ve invested $200 million to get to this point.”
EverWind said it’s on track to deliver green ammonia to German off-takers, E.ON ad Uniper, by 2025.
“We want to seize the opportunity to be a first mover in this market,” Vichie said. “There is no reason that Atlantic Canada, Nova Scotia can’t be a leader in this space, absolutely no reason. And we’re delighted. This will be a global race and with this technology and with the production of clean fuels, we can either make it here or we can import it. I think we should make it here and I think that’s really important.”
Vichie said the green fuel hub will usher in a new industry for Atlantic Canada and Nova Scotia.
“The initial phase of this project will not only make clean fuel but will allow integration of renewable power into our grid today, which we need. It is absolutely imperative that the work that we do allows that to happen,” he stated. “We will make cheap green fuel for the region, and it will bring industry and prosperity to the region.”
On Feb. 7, Environment and Climate Change Minister Tim Halman announced provincial environmental approval for the iniial phase of the project.
Calling the approval a “significant milestone,” EverWind said it paved the way for construction to begin last spring and it is the first independent green hydrogen and green ammonia project in North America to receive an environmental approval and was among the first in the world.
During an announcement on Nov. 17 in Port Hawkesbury, Central Nova MP Sean Fraser said the funding is significant for rural Nova Scotia.
“We’re here to celebrate a tremendous advancement in a green energy project that’s going to put Nova Scotia on the map as a global leader when it comes to the transition to a clean economy,” he said. “This is an industry that will transform our local economy but will play a major part as the world seeks to decarbonize towards a clean economy.”
In addition to other steps, Fraser said his government established the Canada Germany Hydrogen Alliance.
“We sat down and created a framework that involved the creation of new investment tax credits, whic can actually cover up to 40 per cent of eligible capital costs for major facilities, which could translate into millions or even hundreds of millions of dollars in support for mega projects,” he said. “There is a massive opportunity when it comes to supplier of choice as a trusted partner in the world with many of our many European trading partners who are seeking to rapidly move away from the unreliable source of fuel they’ve been relying on, which has proven its unreliability, that’s of course Russia.”
But having a framework in place is not enough, noted Fraser.
“You got to have the companies who are actually going to build-out the infrastructure and create the product that the world is calling for in large volumes,” he said. “What is far more important than the number of dollars the federal government is willing to invest in a good project like this is the number of jobs it’s going to create in communities like ours. We’re expecting, when this facility is up and running, we’re deling with more than 3,800 permanent jobs and along the construction phase of this project, across Nova Scotia, the spin-off effect is going to impact tens of thousands of households here in Nova Scotia.”
First Nations equity partners with EverWind in the project are the First Nation communities of Membertou, Paqtnkek (Bayside Development Corporation) and Potlotek.
In December, EverWind said it was the successful proponent in a provincial request for applications for Crown land and is exclusively applying for leases on 55,442 hectares of land to develop a two-gigawatt onshore wind farm. The onshore wind is expected to power the second phase of its green hydrogen production facility by 2026.
EverWind acquired the Point Tupper terminal in early 2022 and the site has capacity to produce more than 10 million tonnes per year of green ammonia.