The Nova Scotia government has approved the first phase of a green hydrogen and ammonia operation led by EverWind Fuels in Cape Breton.
The first phase includes the construction of a 300-megawatt hydrogen electrolysis plant and an ammonia production facility in the community of Port Hawkesbury, N.S.
EverWind said in a news release that the $6-billion project will be the first industrial-scale green hydrogen and green ammonia operation in North America.
The release says the approval puts the company on track to produce and export green ammonia to German buyers by 2025.
That goal comes from a pact to create a transatlantic hydrogen supply chain between Canada and Germany signed by the two countries last August in the western Newfoundland town of Stephenville.
Stephenville and its surrounding area is the site of a hydrogen and ammonia project proposal led by seafood billionaire John Risley and his company World Energy GH2.
Though the Newfoundland and Labrador government is still assessing the project’s environmental impacts, Stephenville Mayor Tom Rose has said construction has begun on access roads and wind-measurement towers.
People concerned about the project’s environment impact have been regularly protesting at the worksite.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 9, 2023.