SK Ecoplant to join Canada's $4.5 bn green hydrogen project

South Korea’s SK Ecoplant Co. on Wednesday signed an agreement to join the first-stage, $4.5 billion construction of green hydrogen and ammonia facilities led by World Energy GH₂, a Canadian renewable energy producer.

The project, dubbed "Nujio qonik," is a three-stage construction on the west coast of the island portion of Newfoundland and Labrador in Canada, SK said in a statement.

The project name originates from an indigenous language in Canada, meaning "where the sand blows."

SK will take a 20% stake in the first-stage project by financing part of the construction.

The first-stage project relates to building a 1-gigawatt onshore wind power complex; a facility to split water into oxygen and hydrogen gas to produce high-purity hydrogen; and a green ammonia production plant with an annual capacity of 360,000 tons used to transport 60,000 tons of green hydrogen per year.

The capacity is equivalent to about 10% of the entire volume of ammonia produced in Canada in 2020.

It will become Canada’s first commercial green hydrogen plant and the first project of its kind in North America.

SK Ecoplant will be in charge of the front-end engineering design; supplying and installing solid oxide electrolysis cells; and engineering, procurement and construction of an ammonia plant.

It is now considering participating in the construction of an onshore wind farm.

Canada is the world’s seventh-largest renewable energy producer, accounting for 3% of the worldwide renewable energy produced in 2021.

Write to In-Hyeok Lee at twopeople@hankyung.com

Yeonhee Kim edited this article.