Canada seen as key partner to help solve Germany's growing energy crisis
Canada and Germany signed two agreements last week, and both are subject to heightened criticism.
On the one hand there was an agreement of a ‘hydrogen alliance’ which would result in Canada exporting the gas to Germany by 2025.
The other is to get natural gas from Canada to Germany, through LNG shipments.
German chancellor Olaf Scholz met with Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau as part of his ongoing efforts to find LNG to replace that lost following the closure of its Russian supply according to Reuters.
The problem with this hope is that Canada does not have any LNG terminals to enable shipments, and the two that are currently being built are in the west (pacific coast), the wrong side of the country for a trans-Atlantic deal. The two Pacific coast LNG terminals will not be ready until 2025 and 2027.
While such terminals could be built, they would take years to complete, at a time when pressure is increasing for a global shift away from fossil fuels to cleaner alternatives. Critics have been pushing for less LNG production and more focus on renewable sources.
The aim of the hydrogen alliance is to establish a transatlantic supply corridor and to align policies to make investments in hydrogen easier to find.
Two German companies, Uniper and E.On announced they would be importing 1 million tonnes ammonia from Canada’s Everwind Fuels.
Everwind is building a green hydrogen plant in Point Tupper on Nova Scotia
There is concern with the shipping of hydrogen which as a much lighter molecule than LNG would be more liable to leak through pipelines, and lacks the energy density to make long haul shipments viable.
