Decision expected on World Energy GH2 wind energy proposal

Newfoundland and Labrador Environment Minister Bernard Davis is expected Tuesday to release a decision on the environmental assessment of an ambitious wind farm and proposed hydrogen energy plant. 

The World Energy GH2 project.proposal — advanced by billionaire John Risley — would put at least 328 wind turbines on the Port au Port Peninsula and in the Codroy Valley, and a hydrogen-ammonia plant in western Newfoundland.

In August, the province announced four companies — including World Energy GH2 — were advancing to the next stage of wind hydrogen project development.

Those companies have 18 months to begin environmental assessments. 

World Energy GH2 is the sole company whose project is currently under environmental review, having submitted a 4,100-page document this summer. A decision on the project is due at the end of October.

Reviewing hefty document 'a full-time job'

Camille Ouellet Dallaire, an assistant professor at Memorial University's Grenfell Campus in Corner Brook, pointed to a number of problems with this assessment process, from the speed of the process to its accessibility.

Another problem, she said: the sheer length of the document.

"If you were to review this, it would have to be a full-time job," she said.

"And that's not the case of most of the public members.… We all have jobs and families to take care of. So it's not really realistic for us to be able to do a thorough review."

Ouellet Dallaire said the technical language of the document could intimidate members of the public and discourage them from submitting their opinions.

"It makes it even more challenging to engage with it because you think that as a member of the public, you don't have the expertise, you don't have the knowledge, so you don't submit your comment."

That can mean it's hard to access the information and leaves people feeling like they shouldn't engage with it, she said, but they should make their voices heard.

Ouellet Dallaire also said she expects World Energy GH2, as the first to submit its environmental assessment, has set the example for the other companies to follow in terms of sheer length.

"I really hope that our provincial government will take a strong stand and demand a higher standard from other projects are going to go through the process," she said. 

Next steps

World Energy GH2 expects to be producing hydrogen by the end of 2025 and ammonia in the first months of 2026 through its plant in Stephenville.

Ammonia is created through a process that turns wind energy into hydrogen, which is converted to ammonia and shipped to ports around the world.

According to the impact statement, the project would also purchase 600 to 650 gigawatt-hours of power from Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro each year.

This particular proposal has received increasing public scrutiny. In February, World Energy GH2 filed an injunction against protesters who had been obstructing access to the company's wind testing sites.

There have been accusations of a lack of public consultation from people who will be living near the projects and that there wasn't enough time to go over the thousands of pages in the environmental assessment. There have also been worries about how these projects will affect people and the land.

There were calls for a federal environmental assessment, which would have been more thorough than the provincial assessment, though in late September that was nixed.

Even without the decision released, the N.L. government is already positioning itself as an ammonia exporter to world markets in the future, having recently signed a memorandum of understanding to explore future hydrogen-to-ammonia opportunities with the Port of Rotterdam.

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