News and Highlights
- We have added the Bear Head hydrogen and ammonia project in Nova Scotia to our green project list this week. Bear Head recently received approval of its Environmental Assessment from the government of Nova Scotia.
- The states of Iowa, Missouri, and Nebraska have executed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to establish a framework for developing a regional clean hydrogen hub in the states of Nebraska, Missouri, and Iowa.
Green Project News and Announcements:
We have updated our green hydrogen project list this week to include a massive facility planned in Nova Scotia. Expected to produce up to 350,000 tonnes per year of hydrogen, the Bear Head project is being advanced by BAES, a subsidiary of Buckeye Partners. While the headline production estimate equates to almost 1,000,000 kilograms per day (kg/day) of green hydrogen, Bear Head is expected to be developed in phases with initial production possible by 2028. Hydrogen at Bear Head will be generated via electrolysis and used to produce ammonia. Press around the project suggests the facility will require 2 gigawatts (GW) of electrolysis capacity, though our estimates come in slightly higher at 2.3 GW. Renewable electricity will be used to power the electrolysis technology at Bear Head, with Nova Scotia’s wind resources cited by the project’s backers as delivering costs among the lowest in the world.
Interestingly, BAES also backs a company called OneH2, which appears to be involved in various parts of the hydrogen value chain and is providing hydrogen fueling equipment to the Douglas County PUD project (#5 in our list on page 2). Expected to be complete this year, it now appears the Douglas County PUD facility, located at Wells Dam in Washington state, will deliver its produced hydrogen to a fueling facility that will supply automobiles and industrial applications.
Hydrogen Hub Updates:
Iowa, Missouri, and Nebraska signed an MOU to advance the Mid-Continent Clean Hydrogen Hub (MCH2), which is expected to be among the 33 hydrogen hubs to submit a full application with the Department of Energy. Though details around MCH2 remain scarce, the MOU outlines various conceptual goals for the project and tends to suggest a focus on the agricultural industry. In our view, this suggests MCH2 is an ammonia project, though other industry offtakers are possible. Other than the three participating states, the coalition behind MCH2 also includes Monolith Materials, Project Meadowlark, VERBIO, Ideal Energy, and Greenfield Nitrogen.
