Preparing your business for onshore and offshore wind-hydrogen opportunities
In my last blog post, I shared information on the scale of wind energy development in Europe. You can read that here. The following post reflects on that conference and the discussions happening in Atlantic Canada about the potential wind-hydrogen industry. Based on those reflections, this post shares factors that your business should be considering in preparation for this new growth sector in our region.
Big-Picture and Small Details
It is important that companies in Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia look at the big picture and the small details when it comes to this new and growing sector. The conversation to date is on the grand scale of these projects and how much work may be possible.
It appears that a few, but not that many are taking that big picture and translating it into actionable strategies and operations to take advantage of this new opportunity. To bring that big picture into focus, it is important to consider the many possible services and products that are required: some are obvious like building construction and transportation; but also less obvious like the supply of the lubricants for turbine maintenance, or bird or bat detection equipment or services, just to name a couple. There is then of course, the indirect opportunities that arise like expanded restaurants and hotels, or rental properties.
As this sector evolves and grows, a narrow focus for services may also be of great value as there may be many projects to contribute to. We know of five projects now proposed in NL and two in Nova Scotia; but over the next 20-30 years, many more are possible considering the resource, scale of the need, and the size of Atlantic Canada.
Time Scale
When companies are considering opportunities, I encourage them to consider time scale as well; construction of these facilities will take years, which provides significant opportunity. However, operations and maintenance will be an ongoing need of these operations over decades.
Onshore and Offshore
The projects currently being promoted in NL are primarily onshore. In NS, they are talking about onshore projects, and are also promoting offshore wind projects. These offshore wind projects are either wind-to-hydrogen, or due to Nova Scotia’s goal of reducing their coal usage, it also means supplying the electricity grid for use in the province.
In Bilbao, at Wind Europe, I attended an event hosted by Net Zero Atlantic and within the event, the organizers and the Nova Scotia government were promoting the prospects of significant offshore wind development in Nova Scotia.
The Federal government is completing the regional assessment for the offshore currently. You can see their preliminary report here for NL and here for NS.
Figure 25. Preliminary Offshore Wind Licensing Areas from the Interim Report: Preliminary Offshore Wind Licensing Area Recommendations
“This map is a depiction of the preliminary offshore wind licencing areas, which resulted from the removal of all the above constraints. The map additionally depicts which of these areas may be suitable for technologies designed for depths up to 60 m, 60-80 m, and 80-300 m. The Committee is providing these preliminary offshore wind licencing areas to Ministers in the Interim Report. These areas are subject to change as the Regional Assessment progresses. All datasets utilized to produce this map can be found in Appendix F.”
Within 5 years, will we see the beginning of the offshore wind industry in Atlantic Canada as well as onshore? What opportunities does that provide for the services and products your company could provide directly to this sector, but also the many indirect services that are necessary in a new industry?
Comparison to the early 90’s oil sector opportunity
I’ve heard some business leaders describe this as what it felt like in the early 90’s when the oil industry was beginning. Of course, there is a possibility these projects won’t get to financial investment decisions and construction. However, optimistic pragmatism, with a hint of skepticism doesn’t mean that it’s not valuable to consider the possibility and prepare your business. With that in mind, if you reflect on that comparison, what might it mean for your company 2 years, 5 years, and 10 years from now, and how will you be prepared for this?
Pedal & Shift Consulting specializes in providing strategy and executing business development tailored to the needs of technical and engineering services companies in the energy and construction sectors. We focus on the renewable energy sector and being a bridge between Atlantic Canada and Europe.