Regular readers of this blog will know our connection with outport Newfoundland. I began ministry on the Northeast coast of Notre Dame Bay with five congregations in 1980. Our son Isaac, who is now a United Church minister, was born there, so we feel a strong sense of attachment and have gone back many times through the years. I hope that as you read this we are there, having flown out yesterday. We will spend time on Change Islands, two tiny islands adjacent to Fogo and accessible by ferry.
When we lived there it was some windy b'y, seemingly all the time. When we moved back to Ontario we were amazed that rain fell down, rather than sideways, creeping into every nook and cranny.
If only that wind could be a money maker! Well, that is the plan. Earlier this week the Chancellor of Germany, Olaf Scholz, was in Stephenville, NL, with Prime Minister Trudeau. The plan was to sign a green energy deal, focussed around a new wind turbine project. According to a City News report:
A local company has plans to build a zero-emission plant that will use wind energy to produce hydrogen and ammonia for export.Hydrogen is seen as a critical component of Europe’s plan to reduce its reliance on Russian fossil fuels, particularly in light of the war in Ukraine and the recent reductions in the supply of Russian natural gas to Germany and other countries.Cabinet ministers and German business leaders will join Trudeau and Scholz at a hydrogen trade show in Stephenville this evening.
The town’s mayor, Tom Rose, said in an interview he believes the location and existing infrastructure make it an ideal location for such a venture, and the area is poised to be “the green energy hub of North America.”
I hope this comes to pass -- there have been so many touted Newfoundland projects which never got off the ground or have become money pits for the people of the province. Offshore oil was a boom for a time but has become something of a bust. Newfoundlanders deserve a success story.
When we were on Change Islands three years ago the tail end of Hurricane Dorian nearly blew us to Ireland. We know firsthand that the wind is there. Now if it can be harnessed, for good.
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