Irish offshore wind developer Simply Blue is planning a 600MW green hydrogen-to-sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs) project in eastern Canada, the company revealed on Friday.
The “multi-billion-euro” Goldboro SAFs project is slated for the Canadian province of Nova Scotia on 755 acres (306 hectares) of land, part of which was originally earmarked for exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG).
Simply Blue says it will build onshore wind and solar capacity to supply electricity to the green hydrogen and SAF production facility, which will also use “sustainable” residual biomass from Nova Scotia’s forestry industry to produce around 150,000 tonnes of SAFs per year.
Operation at the plant is scheduled for 2029, but so far the developer has not put a firm price tag on the cost of development.
“This project has been funded by Simply Blue Group to date with tens of millions invested in this project already,” Michael Galvin, chief operating officer at Simply Blue told Hydrogen Insight. “We are in the middle of a process to select a strategic partner.”
However, with Nova Scotia’s sourcing around 55% of its power from coal, the project may find itself on the receiving end of criticism about using the province’s renewable energy resources to make aviation fuel rather than decarbonising the grid.
Simply Blue defended its use of electricity, with Galvin telling Hydrogen Insight that the company will also sell a “modest amount” of electricity generated from the new plants to the provincial grid.
Sustainable fuels can be made from biomass alone, via the high-temperature Fischer-Tropsch process which breaks down organic material into a syngas of carbon monoxide and a small amount of hydrogen which can then be processed further into SAFS and other biofuels.
However, adding more hydrogen — produced separately — to the mix significantly increases the yield of the process.
The Goldboro project marks the first time Simply Blue has expanded into North America, or into onshore projects, since first announcing its intention to do so earlier this year.
The company, which says it has been working on the Goldboro SAF project for three years, boasts a global pipeline of 10GW of floating offshore wind projects and 4GW of fixed-based offshore wind.
Goldboro is located around 70 km from the port of Point Tupper, also in Nova Scotia, where EverWind Fuels is developing a 240,000 tonnes-per-year green hydrogen-to-ammonia project, at which it expects to start operations in 2026.
“We’re pleased to see Simply Blue Group investing in this budding new industry in Nova Scotia,” Tory Rushton, minister of natural resources and renewables in the provincial government. “They’re going to make a big difference in the transportation sector with aviation and marine fuel. And as a new market for our low-grade wood fibre, they will help our forestry sector be healthy and strong.”
Gas producer Pieridae sold its Goldboro land assets to Simply Blue in July this year, after spending well over a decade trying to get its proposed ten million tonnes-per-year LNG project over the line.
The project suffered several postponements of its final investment decision, and was finally scuppered in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and the exit of its main contractor, KBR in 2021.
