Canada unveils its long term hydrogen plan

Canada presented its hydrogen strategy showing tremendous growth opportunities for in the coming decades. The government claimed that the market could reach C$50 billion and generate 350,000 jobs as well as help achieve the country net zero emissions target by 2050.

Seamus O’Regan, the Minister for Natural Resources, said that Canada would require between C$5 billion to C$7 billion investments in the short term to support the country hydrogen industry. The government has already announced an investment fund worth C$1.5 billion for low carbon fuels, including hydrogen.

Hydrogen is also pivotal for transforming the country oil and natural gas industries to net-zero emissions by turning the end-use products to carbon-free at the point of use.

The report, ‘Hydrogen Strategy for Canada‘, also claims that clean hydrogen can deliver up to 6% of Canada’s end-use energy by 2030 and can extend up to 30% by 2030. Canada is among the top ten global producers of hydrogen with around 3 million tonnes annual production using steam methane reformation (SMR) of natural gas. SMR is not a clean process for producing hydrogen unless it can be coupled with carbon capture and storage.

The government plans to have five million FCEVs on the road with a nationwide hydrogen fuelling network by 2050. Moreover, the hydrogen economy will help reduce Up to 190 Mt-CO2e annual GHG reduction which is comparatively better than other zero-emission technologies

The government also identified some challenges such as investment, technology, innovation, policy, regulation, lack of awareness, lack of codes and standards etc.