A $100B opportunity: Alberta could emerge as Canada’s first hydrogen energy hub, report says
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The rest of the hydrogen produced in Alberta is considered “gray hydrogen,” because the CO2 emissions associated with its production are not captured.
We already have a good hydrogen economy in Alberta
Dan Wicklum, Transition Accelerator
“We already have a good hydrogen economy in Alberta. It’s an industrial economy. We make hydrogen and we use it to make fertilizer,” said Dan Wicklum, the Calgary-based CEO of Transition Accelerator.
Wicklum said governments previously tried to reduce emissions by mandating certain sectors reduce their emissions to targeted levels either through regulation or taxation, but a hydrogen-based energy system could enable countries around the world to set and meet net-zero carbon targets.
Despite the potential for Alberta and Canada to be a hydrogen supplier, international competitors are already moving into the market.
“Our competitors so far are Australia and Saudi Arabia,” Wicklum said, noting that both countries have already sold hydrogen of hydrogen to buyers in Japan.
In September, Saudi Arabia sent a shipment of blue hydrogen to Japan, said to be the world’s first shipment of the energy source.
We are equipped to pick up the ball and run with it
Dale Nally, Associate Minister of Natural Gas
Alberta’s abundance of natural gas will make it the second cheapest supplier of hydrogen in the world, after Russia, Alberta’s Associate Minister of Natural Gas Dale Nally said Monday.
Nally said multiple projects in Western Canada could allow Alberta to grow its hydrogen production, including two fully permitted pipelines that had been planned to connect natural gas fields with LNG export projects that could be repurposed to export hydrogen.
