The province’s gambit: Alberta group touts hydrogen economy as ‘step’ to net-zero world
Mayor Alanna Hnatiw of Sturgeon County, a municipal district north of Edmonton. Sturgeon County video screenshot
By Carl Meyer
Alberta is at a climate crossroads, and a group of Edmonton-area mayors believe they have hit upon a solution. The province's Industrial Heartland Hydrogen Task Force, led by the mayors of Edmonton, Fort Saskatchewan, and Sturgeon, Strathcona and Lamont counties, is advocating for a hydrogen economy to be based in their region.
Hydrogen gas is already artificially generated in Alberta for use in a variety of industrial processes, from making fertilizer to processing synthetic crude oil and producing refined petroleum products. About 40 per cent of the province's total hydrogen production comes from the "industrial heartland" near the provincial capital.
But the mayors, as well as federal and provincial officials, academics and industry representatives in the task force say that, in addition to industrial applications, there is much more domestic market potential for hydrogen, as a zero-emissions fuel for heavy transport and space heating.
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