New EU Green Hydrogen Regulations Disqualify EverWind Phase I
Opinion Piece by Kristen Overmyer Aug 26,2025
EVeRwIND applied Their Phase 1 Amonia Product - to the EuropeAn Union GREEN HYDROGEN MARKET
In qualifying their Phase I1 ammonia product for the European Union (EU) green hydrogen market, EverWind Fuels Inc. relied upon a carbon bookkeeping scheme specified in the European Commission Delegated Regulation 2023/1184 of 10 February 20232. This scheme permitted EverWind to negate their product’s substantial carbon footprint through power purchase agreements (PPA) that exclusively assigned the carbon abatement properties of the electricity from their own grid-connected wind power plants to their ammonia product’s production despite said electricity having already displaced fossil generation on the Nova Scotia grid with consequential carbon emissions reductions.
This July 7-8, 2025, the EU issued a new, more stringent Commission Delegate Regulation titled “Commission delegated regulation (EU) specifying a methodology for assessing greenhouse gas emissions savings from low- carbon fuels3.” The new regulations omit this carbon bookkeeping scheme in its entirety thereby disqualifying any project reliant upon it for receiving EU green certification; this includes EverWind’s Phase I project.
Hydrogen industry summaries of the EU rule changes confirm this point. From “Hydrogen Europe,” the article “Low Carbon Hydrogen Delegated Act a first step to closing the hydrogen production regulatory gap4” states,
“Despite these positive steps, the Commission has not allowed for the sourcing of low-carbon electricity through a power purchase agreement (PPA) …”
In describing industry response, a second article from “Hydrogen Fuel News5” states,
“Power purchase agreements (PPAs) are off the table. Producers can’t just buy clean electricity contracts—they need to show their electrons come from the actual grid mix at the time of use.”
“Others are raising eyebrows over the ban on PPAs. In regions where the grid mix hasn’t caught up with renewables, this rule might shut out projects that are otherwise clean.”
New EU regulations
The annex to the new EU regulations contains the updated instructions regarding how the emissions for electricity from grids that do not qualify as fully renewable (e.g., NSPI) are to be calculated. While the use of PPAs is not explicitly banned as suggested by the one article above, it is nonetheless no longer available by its omission. All language concerning PPAs is gone as can be seen in the relevant text from the annex which is copied here for your convenience.
“6. One of the four following alternative methods shall be applied during each calendar year to attribute greenhouse gas emissions values to the electricity that cannot qualify as fully renewable in accordance with to Article 27(6), second and third subparagraph, of Directive (EU) 2018/2001 and is used to produce low-carbon fuels:
(a) greenhouse gas emissions values shall be attributed based on yearly averages as set out in Part C of this Annex;
(b) greenhouse gas emissions values shall be attributed based on the hourly average greenhouse gas emissions value of the electricity mix at the time of production of the low carbon fuels in the bidding zone, as forecasted by the transmission system operators for the day-ahead market for the bidding zone where the low-carbon fuel is produced two hours before the market gate closure time of the day-ahead market. Where available a harmonised methodology shall be applied for this purpose. Until the establishment of a harmonised methodology, the methodology shall have been approved by the competent authority;
(c) greenhouse gas emissions values shall be attributed depending on the number of full load hours that the installation producing low-carbon fuels is operating. Where the number of full load hours is equal or lower than the number of hours in which the marginal price of electricity was set by installations producing renewable electricity or nuclear power plants in the preceding calendar year for which reliable data are available, grid electricity used in the production process of low-carbon fuels shall be attributed a greenhouse gas emissions value of 0 g CO2eq/MJ; where this number of full load hours is exceeded, grid electricity used in the production process of low-carbon fuels shall be attributed a greenhouse gas emissions value of 183 g CO2eq/MJ;
(d) greenhouse gas emissions values shall be calculated as an hourly average, based on the greenhouse gas emissions value of the marginal technology setting the clearing price of electricity in a given market time unit at the time of the production of the low-carbon fuels in the bidding zone. This option may only be used if this value has been made publicly available by the national transmission system operator.”
NSPI DOES not meet the EU green standards
Since NSPI does not provide “marginal price of electricity” data, items (c) and (d) are not available to EverWind. Regarding item (a), NSPI most recently reported an annual average CO2 emissions intensity of 502 grams/kilowatt-hour which would not meet the EU green standards. This leaves item (b) for which a detail simulation6 of the NSPI grid, under conditions anticipated for EverWind operation through the decade’s end, yielded a best-case value of 239 grams/kilowatt-hour; again, outside the EU green standards.
The new EU regulations are under review
At this time, the new EU regulations are under review by the European Parliament and Council which ends this September 8th unless extended another 2 months. In this time, the regulations cannot be changed, only accepted or rejected. If accepted, the regulations are published and go into effect 20 days later. Over the last ten years, the acceptance rate for such acts and regulations is 94%.
Sincerely,
Kristen Overmyer, M.S.M.E.
Seal Harbour, Nova Scotia
(902) 302-1677
August 14, 2025
[1] https://everwindfuels.com/projects/phase_one_power
[2] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32023R1184
[6] https://getgreenright.ca/content study “Nova Scotia “Green” Ammonia Will Increase CO2 Emissions Globally While Exporting Renewable Energy Benefits.”
‘Double accounting’ CO2 reductions
GNSF Contact: Madeline Conacher, info@greennovascotiafirst.ca www.greennovacotfirst.ca