It took decades for Alberta’s oil and gas industry to become the giant force that it is in the province’s economy, but with worldwide change towards renewable and more ecologically friendly sources of energy, decades for the next advancement will be to slow.
That’s the pitch behind the Calgary Region Hydrogen Hub, which opened on June 9 to better connect academia, the government, and businesses towards creating a new hydrogen economy in the province.
The potential could also mean the continued relevance of Alberta’s oil and gas industry as the world moves towards a net-zero future by 2050, with natural gas forming the basis for hydrogen production.
“The hub’s role is coming in and helping to try to coordinate and expedite that transition, and that’s a major role of how we can play and that initially is done early on in this stage is exploration, testing, experimentation. That’s the phase we’re in right now,” said Zak Cunningham, Lead for the Calgary Region Hydrogen Hub (CRH2).
“We’re really trying to identify some of the lowest hanging fruit in the Calgary region and perform technical economics and be able to understand what that opportunity looks like, what the scale is, and how does how do we satisfy everybody along the chain.”
He said that among the benefits that the hub would be providing would be decarbonization, along with billions in economic opportunities.
“The economic potential you have keeping folks working in the oil and gas, especially natural gas sector, continuing on, why would we not want Canadian oil and gas to not succeed, right?” Cunningham said.
Cunningham said the majority of hydrogen used in the province currently is gray hydrogen produced from natural gas. The debate on whether hydrogen is clean enough is separate to the demands of nations wanting to use hydrogen as a store of energy.
“When we look at hydrogen, we don’t look so much by the different shades of colours… but carbon intensity is the real issue. So moving forward, if we’re talking about hydrogen as an energy carrier, the key goal has to be decarbonization and how, and that’s having a low carbon intensity of that hydrogen for it to be effective.”
Securing a strong economic future in hydrogen, said Mayor
The hub, which was first announced in March, was funded by the City of Calgary, Calgary Economic Development, PrairiesCan, Wheatland County, and Alberta Innovates.
“The opening of the Calgary region hydrogen hub means that we now have an amazing opportunity to drive forward hydrogen as an energy solution, and it’s part of the mix of what we do here,” said Mayor Jyoti Gondek.
“We are very strong in conventional oil and gas, and now we have a new opportunity before us. The province is incredibly bullish on this as well, so we’re going to take some collaborative steps to move forward.”
She said that while there are some who feel as though the energy transition could occur overnight, that simply isn’t possible, but that initiatives like CRH2 would be a part of creating a realistic transition for the economy.
“We have to keep conventional methods going, but at the same time that we’re doing that, we are transforming the way that we are doing that energy production. We are leaders when it comes to the energy transition. We have so much tech talent in our city that has helped us be able to create more sustainable energy production, and moving towards hydrogen is another positive step,” the mayor said.
She said the new hub would also help the City of Calgary achieve reduced carbon emission targets by 2030, and be net-zero by 2050.
“We need to make sure that there’s proper research being done and that there is strength in the industry that allows us to switch our fleets over, as an example. The hydrogen hub is going to be an excellent partner in helping us move towards our goals.”
“It’s hard to say how long it’ll take for hydrogen to become commonplace. I think it starts with pilots. And I think there are lots of organizations that are willing to pilot new things. We’re willing to do that with our fleets.”
Premier Danielle Smith said that the province had partnered with private industry to produce more hydrogen from natural gas.
“The hydrogen would then be exported as ammonia via the Port of Prince Rupert. Our government is working to make that a reality,” she said.
Smith said that the production of hydrogen from natural gas in the province meant that, as a commodity, it could be produced inexpensively enough and in sufficient quantities to be attractive to the hydrogen economy globally.
Concerns over the production and transportation of hydrogen as not being cost-effective have scuttled major projects in B.C.
That province saw seven large-scale projects ended or put on hold, citing costs to move volatile chemicals by rail, a lack of domestic demand, and the electricity demands to produce hydrogen.
Cunningham said that energy transitions tend to be messy and that it was still early days for the use of hydrogen.
“This is to be expected, so I don’t see any surprise in this, and I think that all the governments are still trying to figure it out and understand how long this is going to take. We’ve realized the use cases are maybe narrowing, but even so, there’s a number of different aspects that we’re learning. Again, it’s all part of the normal transformational program process.”
He said that the hub was inviting businesses interested in the hydrogen economy to get involved and become part of the CRH2 ecosystem.
