Canada has signed a Memorandum of Understanding to sell hydrogen produced on its east coast to Germany through the European foundation H2Global. The agreement, signed on Monday, March 18, by Canadian Energy Minister Jonathan Wilkinson and German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck, provides for the establishment of a special „bilateral window“ through the German H2Global Foundation to promote commercial transactions between Canadian producers and German industry.
In this window, coordinated supply and demand auctions will be held to connect hydrogen exporters with German buyers and allow for „commercially binding contracts“.
The H2Global initiative is designed to accelerate the ramp-up of the renewable hydrogen market through an auction-based instrument. The initiative buys hydrogen and derivatives at competitive global prices and sells them to the highest bidder in the EU.
Robert Habeck said: „We believe that H2Global's common financial window can play an important role in closing the remaining price gap. This will support the development of hydrogen production capacity to increase its availability.“
Following the Canada-Germany hydrogen alliance, signed in August 2022, Canada said the move will support Europe in "replacing Russian oil and gas imports and fighting climate change".
The new memorandum of understanding between the partners, which originally envisaged first exports by 2025, comes less than 12 months after Germany estimated that 50-70% of its hydrogen demand of 95-130TWh in 2030 will be met by imports.
Wilkinson said the announcement is „a testament“ to Canada's position as a „global clean energy supplier“, adding that the deal will enable sustainable job creation, economic growth, emissions reductions and energy security.
One of the key projects under the transatlantic partnership is World Energy's GH2 Nujio'qonik project in Newfoundland and Labrador.
The Canadian government, which plans to produce approximately 400,000 tonnes of green ammonia in the first phase before expanding to 1.2 million tonnes per year, signed a definitive loan agreement in February for C$128 million to support its development.
The government has also backed Nova Scotia-based green hydrogen and ammonia company EverWind Fuels with a CAD125 million loan.
Source - h2-view.com
Photo - Source - Government of Canada
