EverWind Pursues Ambitious Green Hydrogen And Ammonia Plant In Point Tupper
PORT HAWKESBURY – In a bid to be the first in Nova Scotia to commercially produce green hydrogen from wind power, a major investor has put $100 million of his own money into Point Tupper’s tank farm.
Trent Vichie, CEO of EverWind Fuels, has purchased the tank farm in the Point Tupper Heavy Industrial, near Port Hawkesbury, for $76.9 million. His intention is to turn it into a facility to produce green hydrogen and ammonia.
This is part of an initial $1 billion in capital Vichie said will be necessary to get the facility running, which will be a combination of debt and equity.
“It’s a big number, but the reason is that when you’re developing projects like this you need to do a lot of work early on – there’s huge demand for investment into green transition hydrogen fuels – the phone rings every day on that front,” Vichie said recently on the Huddle Insights Podcast.
PODCAST: EverWind Bets Big On Green Hydrogen
EverWind has also filed a project description for a Class 1 environmental assessment with the Nova Scotia Department of Environment and Climate Change, with the intention of opening a green hydrogen production facility.
Vichie plans to build wind turbines that will generate electricity that will then be used to create hydrogen and ammonia through electrolysis. Since the electricity used to separate the hydrogen molecules from ammonia would be generated from a renewable source, the hydrogen would be considered green.
Ammonia, with a plethora of transport, agricultural and industrial uses, is a product that has a significant, growing market, says Vichie.
Once it’s up and running, the project will produce five times as much ammonia as hydrogen – approximately a million tons per year at full capacity.
The first phase of the project involves spending $1 billion to convert the property into a terminal to convert wind power into hydrogen.
“You take that renewable power and add water and you make hydrogen,” Vichie said.
Vichie said the tank farm – with capacity to store almost eight million barrels of fuel – has some significant assets that will help with his green hydrogen project.
He called the tank farm a “real gem,” and stressed how useful an asset it is: It’s near a 27-meter-deep berth, one of the deepest two-berth ports in eastern North America, which provides an opportunity for international shipping.
“We have a port and infrastructure in place that, to the best of my analysis, means we can get [our products] to market three-and-a-half years before others. The Point Tupper asset has been there for a long time and it’s an incredible infrastructure asset. It has probably close to 5 (or) 600 million dollars of infrastructure in the ground there, in terms of ports and storage and pipelines and other assets,” Vichie said.
“It has incredible safety culture and safety monitoring and water monitoring and fire and spill response and it has an incredible track record. That business is ideal to … help Nova Scotia get into the green hydrogen and green ammonia market,” he added.
Vichie says his plan is to reduce Nova Scotia’s emissions by about a million tons in the project’s first phase – and around two million by the second phase. Nova Scotia emits around 15 million tons of C02 per year.
Vichie hopes to have the first phase of production running by the first quarter of 2025.
Reducing emissions will be difficult, Vichie said, stressing the need for a “Marshall Plan-type mentality” to deal with climate change and decarbonization.
“We can play a part and, once it’s been done and worked through, it’s much easier to build a broader industry,” he said.
One significant challenge Vichie faces will be getting the necessary number of wind turbines – several hundred – installed and providing power to the hydrogen facility.
To get the project to “industry-scale,” Vichie said the project will need to generate around 2,000 megawatts of power. Each megawatt costs around $1.5 million to generate.
“It’s a scaled process. You need a fair number of wind turbines and the biggest issue, I’d say, is that everyone loves wind but they don’t like it near residential areas – that’s the biggest thing. The important part is engaging with communities early to figure out where to put it and how to minimize those impacts,” said Vichie.
That community engagement will involve consultations with First Nations, fisheries, and the community. Vichie is confident the permitting process will be wrapped up by the fourth quarter of this year, as engineering work is underway.
“So far we’ve got a really good response, and people have been supportive of the project,” he said.
The construction of the production facility’s first phase in the 1,400-square-foot industrial park will require the work of around 500 construction workers, and EverWind is working with 15 different firms on the development side.
While Vichie noted the project won’t entail as many jobs longer term, the facility, when up and running will employ “somewhere between 30 to 50 or thereabouts.”
While he didn’t provide many details on the second phase, Vichie indicated there will be more work and jobs involved.
Sam Macdonald is a Huddle reporter in Moncton. Send him your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].