Alberta home to Canada’s first hydrogen hub
Canada’s first hydrogen hub was launched near Edmonton, capital of the province of Alberta, on April 14, bringing together funding from three levels of government to kickstart the province’s low-carbon hydrogen economy.
The Edmonton Region Hydrogen HUB is backed by C$1.2mn (US$960m) from the federal Western Economic Diversification Canada, C$600,00 from Alberta’s Industrial Heartland Association, and $400,000 from the province of Alberta through its Emissions Reduction Alberta programme.
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Creation of the hub fulfills a key recommendation from Alberta’s Industrial Heartland Hydrogen Task Force last year, which outlined that Canada’s hydrogen sector has a wholesale market potential of up to C$100bn/yr and identified the Edmonton region as the best launching pad for a pan-Canadian hydrogen strategy. In its own national hydrogen strategy, unveiled in December 2020, the Canadian government noted Canada is one of the world’s top 10 hydrogen producers and is poised to benefit from what it sees as a C$12 trillion global hydrogen economy.
Alberta’s Industrial Heartland is home to Canada’s existing hydrogen production sector, and the province is listed amongst the best carbon sequestration jurisdictions in the world, making it a central figure in the country’s nascent blue hydrogen aspirations. Two major carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects in the province have already sequestered more than 6mn mt of CO2 in the last six years.
And hydrogen was listed as a key focus of Alberta’s natural gas strategy and vision, released in October 2020 with development of a global hydrogen export industry as a key focus.
“Hydrogen has the potential to be not just a key part of the world’s cleaner energy future, but the future of Alberta’s dynamic energy industry,” Dale Nally, the province’s associate minister of natural gas and electricity, said. “The launch of the Edmonton Region Hydrogen HUB is a critical step towards building that future by establishing the local connections which will pave the way for provincial, national, and international networks in the years to come.”
With support from Alberta’s Transition Accelerator, planning is underway for over 25 potential projects related to the supply, delivery and use of low-carbon hydrogen. Potential projects include the use of hydrogen for municipal and commercial vehicle fleets and home and industrial heat and power.
Alberta gas distributor ATCO is already implementing plans to blend 5% hydrogen into a portion of its local distribution network in the community of Fort Saskatchewan, which borders the hydrogen hub on Edmonton’s northeast outskirts.