FLAT BAY, N.L. — What began as an accidental salt discovery in western Newfoundland by a company looking for petroleum has now spun off into two different potential sources of revenue.
Atlas Salt, which was known as Red Moon Resources until August 2021, has spent the last few years working on what it calls the Great Atlantic salt deposit, between St. George’s and Flat Bay, with the intention of mining and selling road salt to consumers on the eastern seaboard.
Following the results of a ground gravity survey of a salt dome at nearby Fischell’s Brook, however, the company is now looking at another application of its resources — hydrogen storage.
Rowland Howe, president of Atlas Salt, said the results of the survey show the dome is much larger than was previously believed, and has great storage potential.
“With hydrogen, you need somewhere to store it and it doesn't compress very well, so you need a big space,” he said. “Being able to hollow out a salt dome creates the kind of space that allows you to do that. We put two and two together — we've got a big salt dome and it supports the idea of the hydrogen economy in that region. It could be the anchor for many different industries.”
The Great Atlantic salt deposit is between Flat Bay and St. George's - Contributed
Salt domes have been used in the storage of different types of energy for decades, notably natural gas and crude oil, but in recent years have been touted as a solution for storage of renewable energy sources, specifically hydrogen.
In Utah, the Advanced Clean Energy Storage Project, which plans to use a salt dome to store hydrogen, received a conditional commitment earlier this year for a $504.4 million loan guarantee from the United States Department of Energy’s federal loan guarantee program.
Howe referenced the hydrogen-related projects that are in various stages in the province, and said somewhere will be needed to store the hydrogen, which is where they come in.
“The thing about hydrogen storage is you can use that as a battery for renewable energies,” he said. “Harvesting things like wind energy is all well and good, as long as you've got a place for it to go. This essentially is like a large battery, so you harvest wind when the wind's blowing, and you release that energy when people need it.”
Atlas Salt, which is planning on setting up a salt mine in western NL, is also hoping to use the salt caverns to store hydrogen. - Contributed
He said as they heard more and more about renewable energy in the province, specifically hydrogen, they saw an opportunity.
“There's so many good omens stacking up here. The stars are aligning for hydrogen and it's a global economy story. It’s a global climate change story,” he said.
“It's just got so many different aspects to it, and we hold the rights of the dome to make the storage available.”
Altas Salt recently discovered the salt dome at Fischell’s Brook is much larger than anticipated and now hope to use it to store hydrogen - Contributed
As for the salt side of it, Howe said they plan to sell road salt to a number of places on the eastern seaboard, which mostly imports salt from other countries. Right now, the company is still going through a feasibility study, he said, and is partway through a detailed drill program to triangulate the deposit and confirm the numbers.
With disruptions to supply chains caused by COVID-19, he said, jurisdictions are starting to look at getting things closer to home, and that’s where Newfoundland and Labrador comes in.
"There's so many good omens stacking up here."
— Rowland Howe
“It's a welcoming jurisdiction for mining, it's a stable environment,” he said.
“A thing you need for winter maintenance on highways is salt, so, you got to be sure that you have safe, secure and regional supply for the product.”