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BLOOMBERG
The renewable energy unit of South Korea’s SK Inc secured a site required to develop a $15 billion green hydrogen project in Canada that’s set to be one of the world’s biggest.
SK ecoplant Co received approval to use 1,078 square kilometres (670 square miles) of Canada’s state-owned property, known as Crown Land, to harness wind energy to develop the green fuel, it said in a statement. Once the project reaches its final phase, it will convert green hydrogen into 1.08 million tons of green ammonia per year from the eastern province of Newfoundland and Labrador, SK said.
SK ecoplant signed an agreement to buy a 20% stake in the project for $50 million in May. Canada has stepped up efforts to become a major producer, user and exporter of hydrogen, and the country signed a deal with Germany last year to supply green hydrogen. It also has a separate $6 billion project to produce the fuel in its eastern province of Nova Scotia.
In May, SK said it will partner with Canadian firm World Energy GH2 Inc, the project’s main developer. The first phase will involve building an onshore wind-power plant, an electrolysis system and a facility that can make green ammonia. The goal is to produce green hydrogen by 2025, and green ammonia a year later, the company said.
The land that SK is allowed to use will enable the company to expand the project to phase 3, the fully operational stage, it said. The facility will have a 4-gigawatt wind power plant that will produce 180,000 tons of green hydrogen per year.
Hydrogen is made by electrolysis, a process that sends an electric current through water to split hydrogen atoms from oxygen. To count as green hydrogen, the electricity must come from renewable sources.