NH3 is what brought us all together.
We are a company, based in Canada, who share in the common commitment to renewable energy, as the only sane way forward, in order to abate the human impact of CO2 emissions, on this planet. Furthermore, we believe that the power which we and our children require, will not only have to be clean, but also safe, reliable, affordable and secure. Which it isn’t right now. And all indicators are that it’s just going to get worse, before it even starts to get better.
We are wind people. We build wind farms. Between us, we provide all of the services in the life-cycle of such a project, from initial planning, through all phases of construction, and on to final commissioning. We have worked on several continents, and have strong ties, both personally and professionally, to countries such as Denmark, Germany, the UK, and within the Caribbean Region.
We are advocates, and we are businesspeople. We are involved with major wind energy organizations such as CanREA, EWEA, AWEA, and CREF, as well as the UNFCC series of COP conferences. We are patient, and we are determined, essential qualities for anyone who wants to work in the field of renewable energy.
We are well connected, and we are well networked. What we don’t know, we can find out. What we don’t have, we can get. Which is exactly how the wind energy industry sprang up in Denmark in the first place, from a grass roots movement of community groups, farm machinists, and citizens with a social conscience. The rest, as they say, is history.
You really can have your cake, and eat it too, figuratively speaking, when you develop renewable energy projects, not only for the good of the planet, but also with a strong bottom line. And as bigger and better projects produce better and better results, by comparison, the fossil fuel industry is going in exactly the opposite direction. The price at the pump goes up every day, supplies are becoming precarious, and catastrophes such as the BP oil spill in the gulf, and the beleaguered nuclear plant in Fukushima, are a constant reminder of the legacy of Chernobyl, and the the Exxon Valdez. The damage done, and the lives lost.
But around the turn of this century, renewable energy truly started coming into its own here in North America, as it had already throughout the “early adopter” states in Northern Europe, and the UK. And while change is always the hardest thing to accomplish, we are now undeniably in the midst of a full-fledged “Green Boom”. And its not just wind power. It’s also solar, tidal, wave, biomass, and a raft of other proposed technologies. No single one of them, on its own, can ever be considered to be a true “silver bullet” solution. In fact, our own position might be best stated as “All Help Welcome”, to all of the above.
Unfortunately, there is one characteristic which all renewables share, and that is that they are “intermittent”, or “variable”, literally by nature. We can in fact harness nature, to a large degree, but we still cannot order it to behave, nor when and how we wish it to. And so, the way that it works is that when the wind is blowing (or the sun is shining, et al), we are able to generate electricity and to immediately deliver it to the grid, for instantaneous consumption, by the loads (users) as they require it. Those who operate the grid, then work continuously to mix these renewable generations with traditional coal and other fossil fuel plants, which, if nothing else, can then indeed produce power on demand. The best that a wind farm can hope for, at the best of times, is an output capacity of about 35%. This means that a 1 MW wind turbine can generate up to 1 MW of power, over about 35% of the hours, in any given year. The same applies of course to solar at night, and tidal, when the waters are calm.
To paraphrase the famous real estate slogan; in renewable energy, the three most important things are timing, timing, and timing. And so, to avoid outages and shortfalls, utilities routinely over-produce, and spill or dump any excess production which isn’t consumed, instantly. The waste is tremendous, and the net price of such inefficiency is of course passed on to the consumer. And the numbers are staggering.
The problem of course is storage. There isn’t any, or at least not very much, to date.
Certainly not on any commercial scale. On an off-the-grid project, you can store the electricity in heavy duty lead-acid car batteries, for several hours, even days. In theory, if you have 12 days worth of storage, you probably shouldn’t experience any shortages.
But for the rest of us, it just aint so.
And so, about 10 years ago, the founding members of our team starting exploring a variety of “emerging technologies”, designed to deal with this “Achilles Heel” of ours. We looked at industrial flywheels, thermal storage, compressed air in brined out underground caverns, pumped water, flow batteries, etc., etc., etc.
But still no “Eureka”.
And then, while attending the COP 15 meetings in Copenhagen, in 2009, our group of Canadians met up with each other, and we were introduced to NH3, by the inventor of a technology which would allow it to be produced, as powered by electricity, rather than by the reforming of natural gas, or the burning of coal, and on a much more localized scale. This process of electrolysis is similar to the hydrolysis of Hydrogen itself, but for many reasons (see tab NH3 – 101), NH3 is superior for storing energy in hydrogen, even than hydrogen itself is. Plus it doesn’t require all new gas stations, pipelines and/or robotic infrastructure.
Furthermore, it was emphasized that, if such electricity was produced from a renewable source, that we would then also have a Zero Emission fuel, throughout the entire production chain. Wind energy, in liquid form.
And then everything flipped. Because while it is indeed a great idea to produce NH3 from renewable energy sources, it happens to be an absolutely BRILLIANT one, to use that NH3 as an Energy Storage Medium, temporarily, and THEN to use it as fuel, for the powering of electrical generators, on demand, as required, and when purchased.
Plus, NH3 is also a Zero Emission Alternative Fuel.
Plus, NH3 can now also be produced as On-Site Fertilizer Production.
Or all of the above.
Since that time, we first incorporated NH3 Canada, for the express purpose of developing and exploiting, in the most positive sense of the word, the technology, for delivery to our known base of renewable energy developers, utilities and communities.
In April of 2022, we are opening a separate and standalone platform, based in Copenhagen, Denmark, which will also be actively part of the larger, overall movement of 100% DeCarbonization, for both Denmark and the entire European Union, on or by the year 2050.
By year’s end, 2022 we will start rolling out our first commercial product, a standalone NH3 Synthesizer – the NH3 500, which serves as the core technology, within a number of turnkey, dedicated solutions.
These first few, hand-built machines are dedicated to BETA Sites & Demonstration Projects.
We are an extended family of businesses, with our HQ and fabrication facilities based in New Nova Scotia, NS, associated research facilities in Fredericton, NB, and Business Development offices in Ottawa, ON.
We sincerely believe that we can make a difference.