British Columbia, Canada, is establishing an office to accelerate hydrogen adoption and to streamline projects from proposal to construction.
The BC Hydrogen Office will collaborate with federal and provincial governments to facilitate investment and streamline multi-jurisdictional review and permitting processes.
Already, 40 hydrogen projects have been planned or are under development in British Columbia, with more on the way. These projects represent a potential investment of $4.8 billion in the province. Many are modest or medium-sized initiatives aimed at supplying or solving local hydrogen needs, while some are significant investments, including some of the world’s largest projected green hydrogen generation facilities.
As is the case with many large-scale energy projects, hydrogen projects are complicated and involve collaboration and coordination across multiple levels of government, agencies, regulators, First Nations, and stakeholders. Additionally, hydrogen projects do not conform to current federal or provincial regulatory systems. The government stated that developing a domestic market and retail distribution infrastructure will stimulate hydrogen deployment in British Columbia.
According to a 2019 provincial hydrogen study, by 2050, BC may expect hydrogen to contribute a positive $2.5 billion to the province’s annual gross domestic product, including economic activity associated with the domestic consumption and export of hydrogen, as well as 3,750 new jobs. Given British Columbia’s proximity to export markets, it has the potential to grab a sizable piece of the worldwide hydrogen market, which is expected to reach more than $305 billion by 2050.
British Columbia became Canada’s first jurisdiction to release a complete hydrogen policy in 2021. The BC Hydrogen Strategy, which is a component of CleanBC, identifies 63 activities for government, business, and innovators to implement in the short term (2020-25), medium term (2025-30), and long term (2020-25). (2030 and beyond). These include the following:
- promoting renewable and low-carbon hydrogen production;
- establishing regional hydrogen hubs to co-locate production and demand;
- monetary incentives for the deployment of fuel cell electric vehicles and infrastructure;
- Increasing hydrogen’s use in a variety of industrial sectors and applications;
- boosting hydrogen adoption in regions where it is the most cost effective in terms of emissions reductions;
- establishing the British Columbia Centre for Innovation and Clean Energy in order to accelerate the commercialization of breakthrough hydrogen technology; and
- establishing strong targets for carbon intensity and developing a legal framework for carbon capture and storage.
BC possesses the resources necessary to generate both green and blue hydrogen with a low carbon footprint. More than 98 percent of the electricity generated in British Columbia is renewable, enabling for the electrolysis production of green hydrogen. Additionally, BC has low-cost natural gas reserves, large geological storage capacity, and competence in carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology, which enables the production of blue hydrogen from natural gas with sufficient and permanent CCS.
Immediate priorities include the following:
- increase the creation of green hydrogen by utilizing the vast supply of clean, renewable energy; and
- build a regulatory framework for CCS to permit the production of blue hydrogen while maintaining comparable or lower emissions.
BC is home to more than half of Canada’s hydrogen and fuel-cell industries, and the province accounts for roughly 60% of Canada’s research funding for hydrogen and fuel-cell development.
