Justin Trudeau says hydrogen pact with Germany is a ‘historic step forward’
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks in Stephenville, NL as he announces an export deal with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz
Canada has agreed to help Germany with its energy crisis, although few details were offered about how the two countries will work together during a ceremony in Stephenville, NL, on Tuesday.
Instead, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz signed what they called a “joint statement of intent” calling on both countries to invest in hydrogen, establish a “transatlantic supply corridor between Canada and Germany” and start exporting hydrogen by 2025. Trudeau called it a historic moment.
“We need to look to resources like hydrogen that can and will be clean and renewable. We can be the reliable provider of clean energy that a net zero world needs,” Trudeau said.
“The need for clean energy is almost limitless, and that’s where Canada, and Atlantic Canada specifically, gets to step up. With our renewable resources, we have a huge advantage.”
Scholz, accompanied by a contingent of leaders from Germany’s biggest companies, including Bayer and Volkswagen, has been touring Canada this week to secure alternative energy sources to Russian natural gas.
The agreement, which Trudeau called a “Canada-Germany hydrogen alliance,” was signed in a city where a company plans to build a large plant to convert wind power into hydrogen and export ammonia to Germany. But the World Energy GH2 project, which would include 164 wind turbines along the nearby Port au Port peninsula, has yet to receive provincial environmental approval, and residents were only told about it at meetings that began in June.
Under the deal, Canada will export wind-generated hydrogen to Germany as the country seeks to move away from Russian imports. Although the war in Ukraine has caused an immediate crisis, Germany has also been looking for long-term sustainable solutions.
“Our vision for the future and our shared goals are clear. Canadians and Germans and all our friends around the world expect good jobs, a strong economy and clean air,” Trudeau said.
“As a world, we cannot continue to rely on authoritarian countries that will weaponize energy policy like Russia, that do not care about environmental outcomes, or labor rights, or even human rights.”
Canada expects to export Canadian-sourced hydrogen within three years.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz says Atlantic Canada presents a huge opportunity for Germany’s search for a new source of green energy. (CTV/CBC)
Scholz said the German coast can’t keep up with the same wind conditions found in Newfoundland and Labrador, making the province an ideal location for hydrogen production.
He said hydrogen will play an important role in Germany’s future energy supply, especially in industries that are difficult to decarbonize, such as shipping and aviation.
“Germany expects a need of 90 to 110 terawatt-hours of hydrogen in 2030,” Scholz said.
“We believe that Atlantic Canada offers a great opportunity for us, but also for Canada to contribute to a green energy transition. Canada is a close and like-minded partner in the energy transition.”
Wind projects proposed for NL
The Port au Port project is already making its way through the bureaucracy in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Located on the west coast of Newfoundland, about 15 kilometers west of Stephenville, the peninsula is the proposed site for a wind farm that would make Stephenville home to a plant that will convert hydrogen produced from the mills of wind in ammonia.
World Energy GH2, the company responsible for the proposal, expects the Port au Port operation to produce hydrogen by mid-2024. The project is going through an environmental impact statement process that the company, according to the Newfoundland government and Labrador, has a period of three years to complete. The operation would be the first of its kind in the province and is expected to create 1,800 direct construction jobs, 300 direct jobs and 3,500 indirect jobs, according to a press release issued by the company on Monday .
However, since the announcement of this project, some local residents and environmental groups have been expressing concerns.
On Tuesday, dozens lined the street near Stephenville Airport starting at 10am NT in protest of Canada and Germany’s declaration, chanting and waving signs with slogans such as “Newfoundland is not for sale”.
Marilyn Rowe of the Environmental Transparency Committee, formed in response to the Port-au-Port wind and hydrogen farm proposal, said the peninsula’s residents are “guinea pigs”.
“We don’t want to have this in our backyards, so we’re here today protesting because this deal is moving at lightning speed,” Rowe said as he waited for the dignitaries’ planes to land.
As eager as Canada is to move forward with hydrogen and clean energy projects, Trudeau said, the federal government wants to make sure they’re done right.
“Yes, we will have a rigorous process by which these projects are approved, but I am very optimistic about the future we are building together,” he said.
A second project was proposed by Fortescue Future Industries, a subsidiary of Australia-based Fortescue Metals Group. FFI signed a memorandum of understanding with the Miawpukek First Nation on Monday for a feasibility study of a project that would produce green fuels on Newfoundland’s southwest coast using seawater and wind turbines.
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