Resources:

Green Nova Scotia First (website)

Map of wind turbine projects produced by J. Hurst, Green Nova Scotia First

Protect Guysborough (Facebook)

Sustainable North Nova Scotia  (SUNNS) (website)

Michael Leibreich Hydrogen ladder

Michael Leibreich World Hydrogen Congress

News articles on hydrogen and associated wind energy projects

The obvious and key alternative energy sources include solar and wind energy. In some Nova Scotian communities, wind-powered turbines are producing electricity for local use, financed by cooperatives and other community-based initiatives. So what’s the issue with more, large wind turbine projects? There isn’t any, provided those projects will green Nova Scotia’s grid and help us get off coal and other fossil fuels. The problem is that the largest of the wind projects planned for the province will not reduce Nova Scotia’s dependence on fossil fuels. The power generated by these massive projects will be used to produce “green” hydrogen that will be converted to ammonia for shipment overseas.

There are currently two major players in this “green” hydrogen game in Nova Scotia. One is EverWind Fuels, which, at the moment brings in revenue by shipping and storing – yes – fossil fuels at the former NuStar facility in Point Tupper, Cape Breton.

The other is Bear Head Energy, owned by Texas-based Buckeye Partners, “one of the largest independent liquid petroleum products pipeline operators in the U.S.,” which is in turn owned by Australian private equity firm IFM Investors.

Neither of these can claim to be champions of the climate, far from it, so their sudden interest in “green” hydrogen seems a little suspect, to say the least.

Here is a Coles Notes description of EverWind Fuels, which is so far proposing the largest wind projects.

As the Halifax Examiner reported: “In a November press release, EverWind welcomed the news that the federal government was bringing in a 40% tax credit for “clean hydrogen,” a 30% tax credit for “clean technology,” and establishing a $15 billion Canada growth fund that would apply to “low-carbon hydrogen.””. The full article is here. For someone who has spent most of their career in private equity and sourcing public funds, those figures could be very convincing carrots for Mr. Vichie

In late 2023, Export Development Canada offered $166 million in financing to EverWind Fuels.

EverWind Fuels and Bear Head Energy have proposed six large wind projects for NS, to produce “clean energy” that will be used soley for the production of hydrogen. In one case the project is extremely large – North America’s largest – in Guysborough County.

Another company, Ireland-based Simply Blue, is also proposing a large 100-turbine wind project in the District of St. Mary’s to power its production of “sustainable aviation fuel” (SAF), green hydrogen and green ammonia in Goldboro, Guysborough County. Although their website is vague on details, Simply Blue states that they will use water and wind power as well as ‘sustainable biomass” to separate out hydrogen and carbon that will be converted (no details provided) into sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and renewable methanol. Simply Blue uses this diagram to describe the process.

The total area of eight of these projects is a whopping 260,473 acres of mostly Crown land, a great deal of which is in Guysborough County. Simply Blue has no details of the size of their proposed wind farm. Other counties involved include Cumberland, East Hants, Chester, HRM, and Pictou.

That is 260,000+ acres of wildlife habitat and ecosystems with wetlands that provide us with invaluable environmental services that mitigate climate change and help slow down the loss of biodiversity – most of it on Crown Land- which if course is public land! This is not only illogical , it is irresponsible!

The problem remains that these wind projects are not designed to help Nova Scotia green its grid and meet its legally mandated obligation to stop burning coal by 2030. They are designed by offshore corporations with no track record of climate action, to harvest subsidies and earn massive profits with their hydrogen hype.

points of clarification for the table above:

* 436 acres per turbine (source EverWind Fuels)

** the private property that will be used in the Windy Ridge project is mostly land Northen Pulp bought with a $75 Million loan from the provincial government that they did not pay back.

*** The project is on 14,000 acres of Crown Land and 8,000 acres on former Scott/Neenah lands purchased in 2006 by the US investment firm, Wagner Forest Management. Wagner owns close to 500,000 acres of forest land in Nova Scotia.