(Berlin) - Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz want to sign an agreement on renewable energies in the next few days. This also includes an agreement on the export of hydrogen. The German head of government wants to launch the project during a three-day visit to the North American country, it is said in Berlin. Next Tuesday (August 23) in Stephenville, the last stop on the trip, “Canada's potential in building a green hydrogen economy” will be the focus of discussions.
Hydrogen and ammonia from Stephenville
World Energy GH2 Inc. wants to produce green hydrogen and ammonia in the town with a population of around 6.000 on the west coast of the island of Newfoundland. The output of the system will one day be 0,5 gigawatts, according to a 125-page document on environmental impact testing. 
which was submitted to the authorities in June and is available to our editorial team. If the project, called “Nujio'qonik GH2,” is approved, it will be “the first of its kind in Canada,” according to the news portal “Global News,” part of the Canadian Global Television Network.
The electricity for this is generated in an onshore wind farm. In the first phase, 164 turbines with a cumulative output of one gigawatt will be built, along with the necessary infrastructure. In the long term, a tripling of the project size is possible. The planned location is the Port au Port peninsula, barely 15 minutes by car from Stephenville.
New market for Canada
“Canada urgently needs to enter this new market that is in such high demand,” Global News quoted Stephenville Mayor Tom Rose as saying. Only this year 
the province lifted a moratorium on the development of wind farms. “We are now in a position to become the center for green energy in North America,” the politician is convinced.
His city is “an ideal location” as the area is known for its “first-class wind corridor.” In addition, the news portal said they have the means to produce the large amounts of water needed for hydrogen production, as the infrastructure of a paper mill that closed in 2005 “is still in place”.
The consortium
The focus is on collaboration with local interest groups, explains World Energy GH2: “We included the indigenous communities of Miawpukek First Nation and Qalipu in the project at a very early stage.” The name also bears witness to this: “Nujio'qonik” The Mi'Kmaq once described St. George's Bay on Port au Port (“where the sand blows”).
Four companies form the core of the consortium. This includes the investment company CFFI Ventures Inc., led by billionaire John Risley, co-founder of North America's largest seafood and mussel producer “Clearwater Seafoods” in Nova Scotia. CFFI's assets under management are valued at more than a billion dollars. It is “pooling the expertise and resources of its various investments and external partners to put together a team capable of positioning” the province “as a global leader in green hydrogen and renewable energy.”
Also there: the shipping company Horizon Maritime (St. John's, Newfoundland), which develops marine projects for customers such as Equinor (Norway), Exxon Mobil (USA) and Emera (Canada). It will manage the construction and logistics, the development of onshore operations and the coordination of shipping activities.
World Energy, another partner, supports companies in the traffic and transportation sector in reducing emissions through sustainable aviation fuels, renewable diesel and green hydrogen. Fourth in the boat is the DOB Academy, which, among other things, offers training for the wind energy industry. In addition to this previous focus, the company with branches in the Netherlands and Japan is also currently developing offers on the subject of hydrogen.
The cities in the planning area have already promised their support. In addition, the utilities Northland Power (Canada) and Pattern Energy (USA), which are at least partially active in the renewable energy business, are interested in participating in the development. According to the consortium, discussions with both companies are “at an advanced stage”.
No short-term solution for Germany
However, some energy experts warned that "an agreement to sell Canadian hydrogen will be only a small and expensive part of the solution" to Europe's energy crisis, says Global News. The product cannot comprehensively help Germany “in the near future” because Canada “does not yet have the infrastructure to produce large quantities of green hydrogen or export it over long distances.”
In addition, according to the documents, World Energy GH2 Partners does not expect the first green hydrogen to be produced until the end of the second quarter of 2024 at the earliest. Construction of the wind farm should therefore begin at the end of 2023.
But even after approval has been received, the plans could be delayed. According to media reports, residents of Cape St. George on the southern tip of the peninsula are "not amused" but expressed "concern about the potential impact of the project on the area's delicate ecosystem, which is home to rare and endangered plants." Local resistance is therefore not ruled out.
Canada is relying on blue hydrogen for now
The key is that “you have to build a lot of related infrastructure before we can export hydrogen to other countries on a large scale,” said Amit Kumar, chairman of industrial research at the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council and professor of hydrogen, quoted by “Global News”. Engineering at the University of Alberta, who was consulted in developing the hydrogen strategy for the province of Alberta.
The technology still needs to be improved, he says, and will require further investment before the costs are even remotely comparable to those of the energy source derived from natural gas. This is one of the reasons why Canada's hydrogen strategy initially calls for the development of blue hydrogen before eventually switching to green, Kumar is quoted as saying: "If one is honest, Canada's offer of green hydrogen for export is disingenuous."
Photos
Nature conservation vs. energy production: St. George Bay on Port au Port, Newfoundland (photographed by a provincial government webcam on August 17.8.2022, XNUMX). © Government of Newfoundland and Labrador (gov.nl.ca)
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Newfoundland: Location of the project (screenshot from the Environment Assessment Registration) © World Energy GH2 Inc.
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Possible locations of the wind turbines on Port au Port (screenshot from the Environment Assessment Registration) © World Energy GH2 Inc.
