Nova Sustainable Fuels, the Canadian subsidiary of UK-based Octopus Energy Generation, has secured provincial environmental approval for a facility in Goldboro, Nova Scotia, that would convert forestry waste into up to 165,000 tonnes of sustainable aviation fuel per year at a total investment of up to $6 billion.
The project would rank among the largest SAF investments in North American history, pairing abundant forestry residues from Nova Scotia’s timber sector with on-site renewable energy to supply low-carbon jet fuel for European aviation markets. At its proposed scale, the Goldboro plant would meaningfully advance Canada’s SAF production capacity at a time when airlines and regulators are under growing pressure to decarbonize aviation.
“One of Eastern Canada’s most ambitious energy projects.”
The facility is designed to consume approximately 750,000 tonnes of forestry residues per year, including branches, bark, and unused timber. A gasification process breaks the biomass down into hydrogen and carbon components, which are then combined with green hydrogen generated by a dedicated wind and solar installation of more than 1 gigawatt on the same site. The combined stream is processed into methanol and subsequently converted to SAF via the methanol-to-jet pathway, a route also being pursued at the HAMR Energy plant in South Australia, backed by Airbus and Qantas.
Nova Sustainable Fuels received environmental approval from the Nova Scotia government in December 2025, subject to conditions. Additional regulatory sign-offs are required before construction begins. The company is targeting a final investment decision in 2028, with operations expected to start around 2031 after approximately three years of construction. The plant is designed for a lifespan of up to 50 years. New marine export infrastructure at Goldboro would ship the finished SAF to European customers.
The project would generate approximately 1,000 jobs during construction and around 80 permanent positions once operational. At a comparable scale in North America, a $1.4 billion wood-waste-to-SAF plant in Louisiana has similarly targeted forestry residues as a primary feedstock, pointing to a pattern of industrial-scale SAF projects anchored by biomass supply chains in timber-rich regions.
With a final investment decision still two years out, the Goldboro project faces the same challenge as every large-scale SAF development: translating regulatory momentum into committed capital. If Nova Sustainable Fuels secures the FID on schedule and construction proceeds as planned, the facility could begin delivering SAF to European airlines by the early 2030s, well ahead of tightening blending mandates taking shape in the EU and UK.
Source: CBC News
