EverWind presents its hydrogen plans at StFX forum.
EverWind Fuels Chief Financial Officer and Chief Strategy Officer Matthew Tinari spoke on the company’s proposed green hydrogen and ammonia project located at Point Tupper, Richmond County, at the Atlantic Economic Forum held at StFX University on June 20.
Tinari joined a panel discussion on the green economy, carbon reduction and energy futures, and outlined the purpose and scale of the Point Tupper project, as well as the impact it would have on global carbon reduction.
He began his presentation by talking about the de-carbonization challenge in Atlantic Canada and globally.
Matthew Tinari, EverWind Fuels Chief Financial Officer and Chief Strategy Officer said:
What hydrogen is, is basically long-term storage.
“What we’re doing at EverWind is taking an existing crude and refined products terminal, keeping that in operation, keeping all the people there and building adjacent to it a green hydrogen and green ammonia production facility and the associated wind generation to power that so we can qualify as green energy.”
EverWind is the first such project in Canada, Tinari said, noting that the access to wind resources, fresh water and the population density relative to other developed markets, in Point Tupper, “together are ingredients for the perfect green hydrogen and ammonia facility.”
Initially, the project in Point Tupper is focused on the German market, he said. The market for ammonia is 200 million tonnes globally, creating 35 gigatons of emissions, approximately two percent of emissions. Producing green ammonia, he said, is effectively zero emissions.
“It’s a big problem, but it’s also a big opportunity,” Tinari said.
EverWind’s ammonia production, which is slated to produce one to 1.5 million tons a year, is meant to displace the production of ammonia by natural gas and coal with two big markets, fertilizer and industrial and chemical use coming second, he said.
Phase one of the project, which will be the largest operational green hydrogen to ammonia facility globally, is meant to come online late 2025 with 600 MW of new onshore wind.
What that means, said Tinari, “is that new green energy is coming into the system that will not cannibalize existing renewables on the grid. So, you’re not powering this hydrogen to ammonia for export facility and using renewables that other local demand sources are utilizing today.”
He went on to explain that phase one of the project’s wind production would be grid-connected, while phase two would be connected directly to the production facility. He noted that both phases were being developed simultaneously.
Speaking to the process of moving the industry and the project forward, Tinari said both the federal and provincial governments were supportive.
“Nova Scotia, very quickly last year…learned about the hydrogen industry, identified land that was suited for onshore wind to support these projects, had a very detailed RFP [request for proposals] process whereby hydrogen projects could bid on the Crown land to install new wind.”
“We were fortunate that we were beneficiary of about 130,000 acres of land [much of which is within the boundaries of the Municipality of the District of Guysborough] for our phase two and we have been developing those as quickly as possible…for our phase two, two-gigawatt onshore windfarm, which will be the largest built in Canada to date,” Tinari said.
During the open panel discussion, Tinari was asked to give one piece of advice to successfully overcome the climate challenge and create economic opportunity.
He said, “We are very focused on speed. So, getting everyone on the same page and realizing that speed in not necessarily a bad thing. And planting the flag and then getting Atlantic Canada in business and learning and driving cost down and building industry and building support systems is critically important…Sometimes speed is viewed as negative, but speed is actually good in this market.”
Following the presentation The Journal asked Lynn Hammond, vice-president corporate affairs for EverWind Fuels, about the transmission of power from onshore windfarms located on mainland Nova Scotia to the green hydrogen and ammonia facility in Point Tupper on Cape Breton Island.
She replied via email, “A number of options are being reviewed but a final decision has not yet been made,” adding, “The transmission that EverWind will build from mainland NS to Cape Breton is related to Phase 2 which is related to the Phase 2 MODG wind farm development.”
READ the latest news shaping the hydrogen market at Hydrogen Central
EverWind presents its hydrogen plans at StFX forum, June 28, 2023
