This week, EverWind Fuels will host public data classes about two giant wind farms it’s proposing in Nova Scotia, shifting forward shortly with its ever-shifting plans to seek out inexperienced vitality to energy its proposed “inexperienced hydrogen and ammonia” venture in Level Tupper on the Canso Strait.
This would be the first time the general public will get a have a look at the size of two of the wind farms, Bear Lake and Kmtnuk, that EverWind has deliberate for the province.
Two a lot, a lot bigger ones are additionally within the works – one other in Colchester County and one within the Municipality of the District of Guysborough that EverWind says would be the largest wind farm within the Western Hemisphere.
And all this to supply renewable vitality to supply inexperienced hydrogen to transform to inexperienced ammonia, almost all of which will probably be shipped to Europe.
Two wind farm initiatives
EverWind initially introduced the open homes for the Bear Lake and Kmtnuk wind farm initiatives for August 2, however then modified these dates.
The EverWinds web site now says the primary open home will probably be held 5-8pm on August 9 within the South West Hants Fireplace Station on Freeway 14. There it’ll current the 17-turbine, 89-megawatt (MW) Bear Lake wind farm it’s proposing close to the intersection of the municipalities of West Hants, Chester and Halifax.
Website of EverWind’s and Wind Power’s proposed Bear Lake wind farm. Credit score: Bear Lake venture web site
The second will probably be held 5-8pm on August 10 in Earltown, Colchester County, for the 98-megawatt Kmtnuk wind farm with “as much as 20 generators” proposed for the realm.The Kmtnuk website is near the prevailing 22-turbine, 50.6-megawatt Nuttby Mountain wind farm owned by Nova Scotia Energy.
Website of proposed Kmtnuk wind farm in Colchester County, near Nova Scotia Energy’s present Nuttby Mountain wind facility. Credit score: Kmtnuk wind farm web site
A light-weight inexperienced map of Nova Scotia exhibiting the areas of Nova Scotia Energy wind vitality sources and small blue containers exhibiting the identify of the wind farm website, with a drop down bigger blue field highlighting the Nuttby Mountain wind farm website, with a capability of fifty.5 MW and 22 generators.Nova Scotia Energy wind vitality sources, exhibiting the placement of the prevailing Nuttby Mountain wind farm, close to EverWind’s proposed Lmtnuk website in Colchester County. Credit score: Nova Scotia Energy
(Replace: At 5pm on August 8, 10 hours after this text was revealed, EverWind knowledgeable the the Halifax Examiner that it had postponed the 2 open homes scheduled for this week. EverWind mentioned the open home for the Bear Lake Energy Undertaking will probably be held 5-8 pm on August 22, 2023, and never August 9, because it beforehand introduced. The open home for the Kmtnuk Wind Energy Undertaking won’t be held August 10, however as a substitute will probably be 5-8 pm on August 23, 2023. The areas stay the identical as reported beneath.)
As of publication time, neither wind farm venture had been submitted to Nova Scotia Setting and Local weather Change for an environmental evaluation. Nevertheless, in a June presentation EverWind mentioned it anticipated to have environmental approval for these two wind initiatives by November 2023.
EverWind’s evolving plans
“Inexperienced” hydrogen is produced utilizing 100% renewable vitality sources. EverWind describes it because the “swiss military knife of decarbonisation” as a result of it “permits environment friendly, versatile, and long-term storage of renewable vitality.”
Hydrogen is extraordinarily tough and costly to move. EverWind plans to transform almost all it produces into “inexperienced ammonia” utilizing renewable vitality, and ship that to Germany, the place it may be utilized in “agriculture, refrigeration, water purification, and the manufacturing of chemical substances.”
If they aren’t produced utilizing 100% renewable vitality, hydrogen and ammonia can’t qualify as “inexperienced.”
In an interview in August 2022, EverWind’s Ken Summers informed the Halifax Examiner / The Power Combine that the venture can be “powered off the grid” within the “speedy time period and in addition for fairly some time.” He famous that environmental assessments for wind initiatives are a for much longer course of, so the venture wouldn’t be powered initially by wind farms.
Greater than 40% of Nova Scotia’s energy grid continues to be powered by coal, so that’s what the Examiner and The Power Combine reported in September 2022.
Since then, EverWind’s plans have been evolving.
In December 2022, when the Examiner was engaged on a follow-up article in regards to the environmental evaluation of EverWind’s proposed hydrogen and ammonia plant, the corporate talked about for the primary time an influence buy settlement with Nova Scotia Energy for brand new wind farms.
In her December 13, 2022 electronic mail, EverWind vp company affairs Lynn Hammond informed the Examiner, “Energy for EverWind’s preliminary part will probably be coming from newly constructed wind farms related to the grid and particularly allotted to the Undertaking via a Energy Buy Settlement.”
Hammond didn’t say the place the wind farms can be.
We now know the precise areas of two of them, which will probably be introduced within the open homes this week, and the overall location of two subsequent and much bigger ones slated for Colchester County and the Municipality of the District of Guysborough.
EverWind’s newest contradictory numbers
EverWind’s web site now says its Level Tupper plant will produce about 240,000 tonnes of inexperienced ammonia beginning in its first part in 2025, then about 1.5 million tonnes a 12 months by 2026, in a second part.
This isn’t fairly what EverWind’s Lynn Hammond informed the Halifax Examiner only a month in the past. In an electronic mail in July, Hammond wrote that in its second part the corporate would produce about 800,000 tonnes of ammonia per 12 months, and 200,000 tonnes per 12 months or 550 tonnes per day in part one.
A month earlier than that, a June 2023 EverWind “venture replace” presentation refers to a most day by day manufacturing of 750 tonnes of inexperienced ammonia in part one, which might imply greater than 270,000 tonnes per 12 months.
The presentation was obtained by German journalist Karin Finkenzeller, who shared it with the Halifax Examiner. Finkenzeller has reported on EverWind for Germany’s largest weekly enterprise journal, WirtschaftsWoche.
EverWind made the presentation to German corporations E.ON and Uniper, which in 2022 signed memorandums of understanding (MOUs) with EverWind for the “offtake” of as much as a million tonnes of inexperienced ammonia a 12 months.
Within the presentation, EverWind notes that, “Provincial and Federal governments are supportive of EverWind as Canada’s most developed venture.” It additionally states that Nova Scotia’s Minister of Pure Assets and Renewables can “direct NSP [Nova Scotia Power] to enter into PPAs [power purchase agreements] with renewable mills.”
The presentation lists three wind farms for part one – Windy Ridge, Nuttby Ridge, and Bear Lake. It signifies that each one three needs to be up and operating by 2025.
EverWind’s presentation identifies the vendor of the Nuttby Ridge and Bear Lake wind initiatives as Nova Scotia Energy, and the vendor of the Windy Ridge venture as Renewable Power Methods (RES) Canada.
In July, EverWind introduced publicly that it was buying these three new wind farm initiatives – altering the identify of Nuttby Ridge to Kmtnuk – saying that they’d produce about 530 megawatts to energy the primary part of the corporate’s hydrogen and ammonia venture.
EverWind is growing the wind farms along with Membertou First Nation firm, Wind Power, and RES.
A 3rd wind farm to dwarf all others in NS
Thus far no open home has been introduced for the Windy Ridge wind farm, which will probably be EverWind’s second huge venture in Colchester County. Windy Ridge will probably be far bigger than the primary two initiatives.
The venture web site says it’ll have 66 generators producing 340 megawatts of energy, however doesn’t present the precise location.
That’s almost twice the dimensions of the most important present wind farm in Nova Scotia, the 34-turbine, 102-megawatt South Canoe facility in Lunenburg County.
On its web site, EverWind says that along with the wind wanted to energy its first part, it intends to place up “Atlantic Canada’s largest photo voltaic farm” with a capability of 300 megawatts, and to develop battery storage. In its June presentation, EverWind mentioned the photo voltaic facility can be “as much as 350 megwatts” on “EverWind managed land.”
EverWind additionally mentioned in its June presentation that it had “approval-in-principle” with Nova Scotia Energy for energy buy agreements that may contain promoting the facility generated on the wind amenities to Nova Scotia Energy (“as much as 650 MW”), after which Nova Scotia Energy promoting electrical energy to EverWind’s hydrogen and ammonia plant in Level Tupper.
Nova Scotia Energy’s imprecise response
Requested in regards to the “approval in precept” for energy buy agreements with EverWind, and whether or not EverWind’s venture would assist or hurt Nova Scotia Energy’s efforts to succeed in the legislated purpose of manufacturing 80% of its electrical energy with renewables by 2030, Nova Scotia Energy spokesperson Jacqueline Foster replied:
We proceed to work carefully with hydrogen builders to know their wants and have a look at what choices could be out there to help them. We perceive hydrogen builders anticipate constructing or procuring a lot of their very own new renewable vitality as a part of their venture improvement. We’d anticipate Everwind will want new renewable technology amenities to provide vitality to its facility …
New renewable technology will probably be wanted to satisfy the wants of the hydrogen initiatives and the builders have work underway to satisfy their necessities. The Atlantic Loop would help the event of the hydrogen business in Nova Scotia…
Provincial laws requires NS Energy to attain 80% renewable vitality by 2030, and federal coverage requires shifting off coal in the identical timeframe. That’s about 6 ½ years away. It’s an enormous transition. We now have mentioned all alongside, there isn’t one resolution.
What’s in it for Nova Scotia?
EverWind’s Lynn Hammond tells the Examiner that, “Because the venture develops, we plan to offer inexperienced hydrogen into the Nova Scotia market to assist the province decarbonize, we anticipate that 10% of the quantity will probably be positioned into the Nova Scotia market and hopefully extra over time.”
“We now have MOUs in place with potential clients in Nova Scotia,” she writes in an electronic mail.
The one potential buyer that EverWind has publicly named is Maritime Launch Providers, the corporate behind Canso spaceport venture, with which EverWind says it has signed a “letter of intent.” Because the Examiner reported right here, safety filings present Maritime Launch had no supply of working money movement as of December 2022, by which period it had incurred a “internet complete loss” of almost $7.5 million.
Hammond paints this glowing image of EverWind’s venture:
Within the wintertime the renewable sources supporting our venture will probably be in extra of our wants and will probably be out there to “spill” into the grid to scale back carbon gas sources. By optimizing with Nova Scotia Energy, our venture can contribute meaningfully to the renewable vitality provide at instances of excessive electrical energy utilization, notably in winter months, and we’re evaluating the potential profit that could possibly be offered by our second venture part. Our website with street, rail and water entry supplies the power to distribute inexperienced hydrogen into Nova Scotia. By constructing our venture in phases permits us to play a significant position to help the decarbonisation of Nova Scotia and globally.
Within the second article of this collection, we’ll come again to a few of EverWind’s claims about its venture, and to the realities of hydrogen use – be it “inexperienced” hydrogen produced with renewable vitality, or “blue” hydrogen produced utilizing pure fuel with carbon seize and storage, or “gray” hydrogen produced utilizing pure fuel with out carbon seize, or “black” hydrogen produced utilizing coal.
Exporting NS wind assets to Germany
Though Nova Scotia Energy prevented answering if EverWind would assist it meet its renewable vitality targets, EverWind claims that one of many “social advantages” of its venture is that it “helps 80% Renewable Electrical energy Customary in Nova Scotia by 2030.”
One other of its advantages, after all, will probably be to earn a living for EverWind, and its CEO and founder Trent Vichie.
Vichie, an Australian nationwide resident in the US, co-founded the personal fairness agency Stonepeak Infrastructure, and is a former companion at one other personal fairness agency, Blackstone.
The federal authorities foyer registry reveals EverWind Fuels is a subsidiary of three of Vichie’s corporations that share a New York handle – EverWind Fuels Holdings LLC, EverWind Fuels LLC, and Toronto Diamond Laredo.
However aside from what’s in it for Vichie and Everwind, the very fact stays that the primary objective of all this new inexperienced vitality produced by generators on Nova Scotian land, utilizing what EverWind calls the province’s “world class wind useful resource,” is to supply inexperienced ammonia, almost all of which is to be bought to E.ON and Uniper in Germany.
Or, as an E.ON govt put it when his firm signed the MOU with EverWind in 2022, this implies German corporations are bringing “the vitality of Canadian wind to Germany by ship.”
E.ON has informed the Examiner it has not but signed an precise contract with EverWind and that negotiations are confidential. We’re nonetheless ready for a reply from Uniper.
‘Largest wind farm within the Western Hemisphere’
Because the Examiner reported beforehand, in 2026, when EverWind begins producing 800,000 tonnes of ammonia a 12 months (based on Hammond) or 1 million tonnes (based on this press launch), or 1.5 million tonnes based on the EverWind web site, it’ll want vastly extra renewable vitality than these three new wind farms can produce.
Writing in AllNovaScotia.com in February this 12 months, Larry Hughes, founding fellow on the MacEachen Institute for Public Coverage and Governance and professor {of electrical} and laptop engineering at Dalhousie College, calculated that it could take about 11,000 gigawatt hours (GWh) of vitality for EverWind to supply the million tonnes of ammonia it plans to promote to Uniper and E.ON by 2026.
“That is as a lot electrical energy as Nova Scotia Energy produced in 2021,” Hughes wrote.
Apparently EverWind sees no drawback producing the huge quantity of renewable vitality it’ll want by 2026.
Along with the three wind farms it has deliberate to construct within the subsequent 16 months to energy part certainly one of its venture, together with the Windy Ridge venture that will probably be by far the most important in Nova Scotia, and have them up and operating within the subsequent 16 months, the corporate additionally plans to construct an much more huge onshore wind farm – “the most important within the Western Hemisphere” – in 28 months.
In December 2022, EverWind introduced that it had entered into an MOU with the provincial authorities for acquiring a lease on Crown land, “predominantly within the Municipality of the District of Guysborough.”
A February 2023 press launch states that EverWind is “completely making use of for leases on 137,000 acres [55,442 hectares] of Crown land” for a two-gigawatt onshore wind farm to provide the second part of its “inexperienced hydrogen manufacturing facility by 2026.”
This, EverWind says, will allow the corporate to “attain 1 million tonnes of annual inexperienced ammonia manufacturing capability by 2026.”
Hughes calculates that the two-gigawatt wind farm would require about 330 six-megawatt (MW) generators.
In an electronic mail to the Examiner, Hughes writes that if the generators operated at 40% capability (common energy output divided by their most energy functionality), they’d produce about 7,000 GWh a 12 months, sufficient to supply about 700,000 tonnes of ammonia (assuming, as he notes EverWind does, that one tonne of ammonia requires 10 MWh).
And naturally, this mega wind facility in jap Nova Scotia must be up and operating by 2026 whether it is to offer renewable vitality for hydrogen and ammonia manufacturing in EverWind’s part two.
That’s lower than two and a half years from now.
The Examiner requested a wind developer in Nova Scotia how lengthy it usually takes to get a wind farm positioned after which studied, authorised, constructed, working and hooked as much as the grid. The developer, who requested to not be quoted by identify, says it usually takes between 5 and eight years, and in some circumstances, can take as much as 12 years.
A spokesperson for the Division of Pure Assets and Renewables tells the Examiner that no Crown leases have been granted to EverWind, or its companions, Wind Power and Renewable Power Methods (RES) Canada.
Slide from August 2023 EverWind presentation exhibiting jap mainland Nova Scotia in pale inexperienced dotted with occasional tree graphics and darker inexperienced patches dotted with a handful of wind turbine symbols, and the captions “Crown Land Awarded for Wind Farms of 2GW Power Potential” and exhibiting this throughout the “Municipality of the District of Guysborough”
Slide from EverWind August 2023 presentation. Credit score: EverWind Fuels
NS authorities all in on hydrogen
In July, Nova Scotia Setting and Local weather Change (NSECC) launched its second annual progress report on the Environmental Objectives and Local weather Change Discount Act and Nova Scotia’s Local weather Change Plan.
The report indicated that the province goes all in on the hydrogen rush. It said that the province can be releasing “a inexperienced hydrogen motion plan” in 2023.
Within the report, NSECC minister Timothy Halman boasted in regards to the two inexperienced hydrogen amenities “underway” in Nova Scotia, saying they “will assist create clear vitality to learn folks right here in our province and set Nova Scotia as much as be a worldwide chief within the export of inexperienced hydrogen to assist different nations meet their clear vitality wants.”
Halman was referring to the EverWind venture in Level Tupper, and a second one which Bear Head Power has proposed close by.
Because the Examiner reported right here, Bear Head is owned by Buckeye Companions, headquarters Houston, Texas. Buckeye is “one of many largest unbiased liquid petroleum merchandise pipeline operators within the U.S.”
Bear Head Power says its “inexperienced hydrogen and ammonia” venture will probably be constructed in a number of phases “pushed by the supply of renewable energy.” At “full build-out,” the Bear Head facility will probably be “able to producing 2 million tonnes” of inexperienced ammonia a 12 months. The ammonia will probably be shipped “to markets outdoors the area.”
The Examiner beforehand despatched inquiries to Bear Head about the place precisely it could be getting its vitality to supply hydrogen and ammonia, however obtained no reply.
This implies we don’t know but the place Bear Head intends to supply its renewable vitality, and its web site provides no clues, saying solely the venture website is, “In proximity to considerable wind, tidal, and hydro energy, in addition to industrial water reservoirs.”
What we do know is that EverWind plans to place up big wind farms in Nova Scotia, together with one in Guysborough County that may be about eight instances bigger than the large one it’s planning for Windy Ridge in Colchester County, utilizing the province’s land, forested areas, and sure, wind assets, to supply inexperienced electrical energy so it could actually make inexperienced ammonia for a rustic an ocean away.
Not surprisingly, not everybody thinks it’s an incredible thought to supply inexperienced ammonia in Nova Scotia for export.
The venture ‘appears ridiculous’
Julia Levin is affiliate director nationwide local weather, with Environmental Defence Canada.
In an interview, she says she is skeptical of the hydrogen hype, and of EverWind’s claims that hydrogen is the “Swiss military knife” for decarbonisation. She echoes the views of outstanding clear vitality analyst Michael Liebreich.
In his keynote handle on the 2022 World Hydrogen Congress, Liebreich mentioned that the view that hydrogen is a “silver bullet” or a “Swiss military knife” able to decarbonizing every thing is “harmful,” and prone to result in a hydrogen bubble. Liebreich informed his viewers that in idea you should use a Swiss military knife for every kind of issues, however in actuality, it isn’t one of the best instrument for many of them. He quipped that the one actually good use for his Swiss military knife is to open bottles of wine when he’s tenting.
In an article on Liebreich Associates’ web site, Liebreich writes:
The issue is, similar to a Swiss Military Knife, you received’t use hydrogen for every thing you could possibly theoretically do with it. Clear hydrogen should win its method into the financial system, use case by use case. It may achieve this on its deserves, or it may achieve this due to supportive coverage (together with carbon costs). However it’ll have to take action in competitors with each different clear know-how that might remedy the identical drawback. And that’s the place the desires of the hydrogen financial system hit actuality: in nearly all use circumstances there’s a good cause why hydrogen isn’t at present used – as a result of different options are cheaper, easier, safer or extra handy.
For many functions for which it’s being touted, Liebreich says hydrogen – be it costly inexperienced hydrogen produced with renewables, or any of the opposite colors of hydrogen made utilizing fossil fuels – is solely not aggressive. Liebreich’s “clear hydrogen ladder” reveals that the usage of hydrogen is aggressive for only a handful of heavy industrial processes.
Thus, to Levin, EverWind’s venture “appears ridiculous” for Nova Scotia.
“A province that has not get gotten its grid off coal, and is constructing new wind energy to waste most of that to create hydrogen, to waste extra of that to turn into ammonia to ship abroad,” Levin tells the Examiner.
“In the event you’re delivery ammonia abroad, then we’re subsidizing fertilizer in Europe, or in the event you’re transitioning again from ammonia to hydrogen [in Europe], then we’re speaking about lower than 20% vitality financial savings from finish to finish.”
Levin provides:
In an period wherein we’re attempting to decarbonize in good methods, this isn’t a sensible method to make use of renewable energy… I can see why individuals are getting enthusiastic about this know-how as a result of everybody’s speaking about it. But it surely’s not good for Nova Scotia. Like most of those corporations, their shareholders are usually not in Nova Scotia. These are usually not huge job-producing initiatives both. There are only a few jobs actually.
We want extra renewable vitality initiatives, however to what finish? When Nova Scotia continues to be on coal, there’s a lot you could possibly electrify with actually excessive effectivity charges. Utilizing renewable vitality to supply hydrogen, which then will get transformed into ammonia is a really inefficient use of renewable vitality. Every step of that offer chain is complicated and costly.
“Subsidizing this course of to export that ammonia, which is primarily used for fertilizer manufacturing, isn’t an efficient use of public cash,” Levin says.
However Levin is philosophical about what may come of the hydrogen hype in Nova Scotia, saying:
Nevertheless, if this impractical venture doesn’t work out and the economics don’t make sense, hopefully the tip consequence will probably be a build-out of wind energy, which can be utilized to transition Nova Scotia’s grid off of coal.
