From his office overlooking St. John’s Harbour, Sean Leet has fielded a lot of impertinent questions since becoming the front man for World Energy GH2 in 2022. He’s been tasked with leading an almost ridiculously ambitious plan to transform a good-sized chunk of Newfoundland’s western coast into a vast and articulated wind farm supplying renewable energy to a green hydrogen plant that will, in turn, produce equally green ammonia for overseas markets. But this question seems to create a ripple in his executive calm.

“What would you say to those who insist that all of this is a bunch of hype?”

The question can’t be entirely unexpected. Over the past two years, in the breezy hinterlands of Newfoundland and Labrador—and depending on where they are in their individual processes—at least four major wind-hydrogen-ammonia proponents have been industriously signing land agreements with First Nations (and settler) communities, negotiating Crown leases, pursuing provincial environmental impact assessments, plotting massive road builds and even (in GH2’s case) buying an entire seaport. All have been jockeying for the pole position in the next Great Industrial Race to clean the world’s economies— starting with Europe, where governments have set targets and incentives to get the job done by 2030. So, where are the big, juicy, income-raising, job-generating contracts on this side of the pond?

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