As we enter into the thick of Summer, it is worthwhile reflecting on the enormous activity that we have seen in Newfoundland and Labrador’s clean energy industry over the past month and a half.

There is a competitive process underway to access crown land for the purpose of wind energy development, and some of the interested players have recently made some big moves.

On June 1st, World Energy GH2 announced that it had successfully closed the acquisition of the Port of Stephenville. Managing Director and CEO Sean Leet said that “the Port of Stephenville is the cornerstone of our project and will position the Bay St. George area as a green energy hub.” This announcement was just days after the company announced a large investment from SK ecoplant into their Project Nujio’qonik which aims to produce green hydrogen in 2025.

On June 5th, the Port of Argentia, Pattern Energy, & Argentia Capital announced that they have reached an agreement on a planned renewable energy to green fuels project at the port. The port’s CEO Scott Penney said that “Pattern Energy is taking a Lease Option on some 6,000 acres of industrial and forest lands owned by the Port. Should it exercise its Option and proceed with the Project, it will construct a 300-megawatt wind energy facility designed to power the production of Green Ammonia for export to global markets.”

These are just two of the bids received by the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador from 19 companies on March 23. Exciting weeks and months are ahead for the clean energy industry as we learn which projects will have the opportunity to advance. And the world is watching. Proof of global interest on what is happening here in this province was evident again with a recent agreement signed between the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador and the Port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands to cooperate on green hydrogen opportunities.

Update: The first phase of the competition was announced as complete shortly after this piece was published, with the process now expected to be finished by August.

While much of the focus has been on land, not to be forgotten is the wealth of wind resources available for development in Newfoundland and Labrador’s offshore. Amendments were moved forward in Canada’s House of Commons to put important enabling conditions in place to allow for investment into offshore wind in the province.

And flying under the radar were important changes introduced to the province’s Electricity Power Control Act (EPCA) which will allow for utilities and the regulator to consider the environment as a factor in their decision-making. This will mean that decisions are not made solely based on cost and reliability – important because the most environmentally sound solutions are not always the cheapest ones. Our grid is inching close to being 100% clean, and we need to protect and capitalize on this great advantage.

Oh yes, and the Department of Industry, Energy, and Technology announced the launch of its $100 million Green Transition Fund. Learn about it in our webinar next week.

This list barely scratches the surface of the activity underway, and this is only within the past couple of months! econext has been busy working on workforce development, R&D and innovation, and economic development initiatives related to clean energy in the province, and we’ll have a lot more to say about that in the coming months.

… and clean energy is just one of our key priority areas. Luckily our team is growing to meet the demands and help NL seize its green economy opportunities, and if you follow us on LinkedIn you’ll get to know them all in the days ahead.

Suffice it to say that there’s lots to chat about, and we hope you’ll join us at our Summer Social next week to do just that!

Sincerely,

// Kieran Hanley
CEO

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