Infographic: Canada's Hydrogen Economy Opportunity

Canada is uniquely well-positioned to become a leader in the global hydrogen market, where demand is forecast to increase exponentially in the coming decades. Already the world’s sixth-largest producer of hydrogen (currently most of it for industrial chemical feedstocks), Canada is also among the lowest-cost producers. Alberta and British Columbia’s oil and gas sector could be profitably decarbonized by upgrading natural gas, while capturing and storing the carbon, to make “blue hydrogen.” Quebec and B.C.’s cheap and abundant hydroelectricity also can be used to produce zero-emissions “green hydrogen.”

In fact, all renewable energy sources can be used to create hydrogen fuel — which has greater energy potential than conventional fossil fuels — to power vehicles and trains and to heat buildings, without generating any carbon emissions in combustion. This makes hydrogen a logical technology to pair with solar and wind power to fill gaps in supply, while transitioning Canada to a clean energy system. But realizing this potential will take broad, concerted investment from governments and the private sector. Experience in other countries shows it will also take, at the national level, a “coalition of the willing” ready to take risk and start building a new hydrogen economy.