Hydrogen

Why hydrogen?

Canada has reaffirmed its commitment to cut greenhouse gases (GHG) by 40-45 percent below 2005 levels by 2030 and has further identified key industrial sectors for emission reductions, such as transportation, oil and gas, electric generation, and agriculture. This requires the immediate pursuit of zero emission alternatives such as hydrogen, across all regions of the country.

Our vision is to replace the economic impact of the oil and gas sector that once was this region’s primary economic driver. Using similar infrastructure and labour skillset, hydrogen is the path toward a clean and sustainable future.

About the Southeast Alberta Hydrogen Task Force

The Southeast Alberta Hydrogen Task Force is an independent public/private working group established in August 2021, to develop a framework to implement a hydrogen economy in Southeast Alberta. The Task Force is comprised of municipalities, economic development agencies and private industry:

• Prairies Economic Development Canada
• Government of Alberta
• City of Medicine Hat 
• Brooks Newell Region
• Palliser Economic Partnership
• APEX Regional Innovation Network (Alberta Innovates, Community Futures Entre-Corp and Medicine Hat College)
• CF Industries
• Methanex Corporation
• RockPoint Gas Storage
• Campus Energy
• ComTech Energy (4Refuel) and
• The Transition Accelerator

The Task Force will produce foundational tools that detail the opportunities available to advance a zero-emission fuel economy in Southeast Alberta.

The Task Force’s foundational study is the first step toward the establishment of a Hydrogen HUB and identifying broader economic opportunities associated with growing large-scale clean hydrogen production and use in the Southeast Alberta Region.

Next steps

Following the publication of Towards Hydrogen, the Task Force will actively engage with public and private stakeholders and funding providers to work towards establishing a formal Hydrogen HUB in Southeast Alberta, providing education and awareness campaigns about hydrogen and initiating hydrogen pilots and projects.

Calls to action

Upon establishing the Southeast Alberta Hydrogen HUB, the Towards Hydrogen report recommends four strategic calls to action:

1. Move forward with CCUS development as quickly as possible to address existing CO₂e emissions, establish low-cost blue hydrogen generation, and begin to address regional demand and attract synergistic industry,
2. Initiate discussions with regulatory and renewable power proponents to include green hydrogen as part of long-term electric generation strategy for use as both a product and a generation fuel to optimize existing transmission capacity, maximize regional generation capacity factor, and capture of excess non-peak renewable energy,
   
   
3. Establish regional hydrogen demand by building fueling stations and return-to-base operations along Trans-Canada transport corridor. Assemble a “Coalition of the Committed” — industry, associations, transport fleets, municipal fleets, and rail operations — to create supply and demand partnerships, and
   
   
4. Build external demand from other domestic (Calgary, Lethbridge, Swift Current) and US (Montana, California, Mid-West) supply-deficient locations. Utilize existing road and rail transport infrastructure to build demand with at-scale supply of hydrogen and hydrogen carriers, to position the region for larger long-term export infrastructure and opportunities.