German business magazine casts doubt on EverWind’s ‘green hydrogen’ claims 

Germany’s largest business magazine has published a feature story delving into EverWind Fuels’ “green hydrogen” project in Point Tupper, Nova Scotia.

The article, written by Karin Finkenzeller after a month-long trip to Canada that took her from Montreal to Cape Breton, including to Point Tupper to see for herself the status of the project, appeared in the June 18 edition of Wirtschafts Woche (meaning “Business Week”).

As the Halifax Examiner did last September, Finkenzeller found the green hydrogen claims confusing and overblown, to put it kindly.

In September last year, the Examiner partnered with The Energy Mix and published two articles about EverWind’s green hydrogen proposal and the “hydrogen hyperbole epidemic” in Nova Scotia:

EverWind Fuels’ ‘green hydrogen and ammonia’ project in Nova Scotia will be partly powered by coal

The ‘hydrogen hyperbole epidemic’ comes to Nova Scotia

The Energy Mix and the Examiner tried very hard, and mostly in vain, to pin down EverWind on where it would get all the “green” energy it would need to produce all the “green hydrogen and ammonia” it claimed it would be producing and exporting to Europe in the first and second phase of the project.

In fact, we weren’t even able to find out exactly when the first phase would begin and end, although EverWind says it will start producing green hydrogen and selling 200,000 tonnes of ammonia a year by 2025.

Finkenzeller didn’t have much more success than we did.

“Green hydrogen from Canada looks more grey,” states the headline on the Wirtschafts Woche article.

The headline sets the tone for Finkenzeller’s analysis of EverWind’s proposal to produce “green” hydrogen at a plant it plants to build in Point Tupper, and then transform that into “green ammonia” to ship to Europe. EverWind has signed memorandums of understanding with the German firms E.On and Uniper.

According to EverWind, the offtake agreements mean the company will eventually be selling and shipping a million tonnes of green ammonia to Germany every year.

Finkenzeller reports that, “From 2026 and onwards, Uniper and E.On will each receive 500,000 tonnes per year.”

But how green will that hydrogen and ammonia really be? EverWind’s offtake agreements are supposed to be for “green hydrogen.”

Hydrogen is assigned colours based on how carbon-intensive its production is and how these relate to climate protection. The gas can only be called “green” when it is made using 100% renewable energy.

Finkenzeller’s article continues:

When it comes to green hydrogen, E.On and Uniper rely on the Canadian company EverWind. But whether their supplier will be able to draw on clean electricity in time for the hydrogen production is an open question – the only plentiful energy source involves coal.

In other words, the hydrogen and ammonia that EverWind says it will be producing for export to Germany may not be made using 100% renewable energy and thus will not qualify as “green.”

Rather, Finkenzeller finds, at least for the foreseeable future, it could be made using energy that comes at least in part from fossil fuels – coal and natural gas – which makes it “grey.”

This, despite strident and persistent claims to the contrary by EverWind’s CEO Trent Vichie and spokesperson Ken Summers. Check out Summers’ comments at the end of this Halifax Examiner article, which he repeats under this article in The Energy Mix.

Finkenzeller points out that the plant for converting the hydrogen to ammonia does not yet even exist, “nor does the wind farm that is supposed to supply the necessary electricity.” She continues:

EverWind is currently building the largest wind farm in the Western Hemisphere to produce green hydrogen that is carbon-free and made from 100 percent renewable energy,” the company’s website promises. Next to it are offshore wind turbines. The catch: there is not a single offshore wind turbine in all of Canada.

Finkenzeller also notes that in May, EverWind revealed maps showing where it plans its onshore wind farms, which would be built on 550 square kilometres of Crown land in Nova Scotia. But those proposed wind farms have not yet even been registered for environmental assessment.

As did the Examiner, Finkenzeller tried hard to get clear answers from EverWind about where all the renewable energy will come from for its “green” hydrogen before there is supply enough of either onshore or offshore wind energy. EverWind told her only there would be “power purchase agreements” until the company has its own wind farms up and running, but she did not say with whom those agreements would be signed.

If they are with Nova Scotia Power, then they involve Nova Scotia Power grid power.

In 2021, less than 30% of Nova Scotia Power’s grid was powered by renewable sources (which includes 3% biomass, considered by many to be anything by green). Nearly half of the power (47%) came from coal and 16% came from natural gas. So not suitable for producing “green” hydrogen or ammonia.

These uncertainties seem to have led to some scepticism among EverWind partners in Germany, Finkenzeller reports. “Uniper and E.On confirm that they are still checking whether, following the memorandums of understanding, contracts will be signed.”

Just atop the headline of Finkenzeller’s article about EverWind’s green hydrogen project are the words “Windiger Partner.”

The adjective “windiger” gives this phrase a double entendre. It can be translated as “windy partner.”

But it can also mean “not trustworthy.”