Canada approves land leases for major wind-to-green-hydrogen plan

Canada-based World Energy GH2 Inc has secured crown land approvals to install what it says will be North America’s first commercial-scale green hydrogen and ammonia production complex.

The approvals to lease crown land for Project Nujio'qonik were recently issued by the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, the developer said. In order to obtain the leases, it had to complete the provincial Environmental Assessment process.

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World Energy GH2, an affiliate of green fuels producer World Energy LLC, plans to build the complex on the west coast of the Canadian province, where it already owns the Port of Stephenville and will use some of the land for the plant. The scheme envisages the installation of 1.5 GW of electrolysers that will be fed with electricity from 4 GW of wind farms.

Green hydrogen production, to be initially supplied from two 1-GW wind farms, is set to be launched at commercial scale in late 2025.

The lease approvals concern sites in Port au Port and the Anguille Mountains/Codroy for the initial phases of the project concerning the two wind farms. The award includes two additional buildable wind farm areas for the expansion.

World Energy GH2 submitted an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for Project Nujio'qonik last week and is ready with the pre-front-end engineering and design (pre-FEED), with discussions ongoing with potential suppliers, vendors and customers. The next major milestone for the scheme will be the province's response to the EIS, expected to be issued this autumn, said Sean Leet, managing director and CEO of World Energy GH2.

In May, SK ecoplant, part of South Korean conglomerate SK Group, bought a 20% stake in Project Nujio'qonik with an investment of USD 50 million (EUR 46.6m).

(USD 1.0 = EUR 0.932)