New Brunswick on cusp of becoming hydrogen powerhouse: energy minister

Article content

The Higgs Progressive Conservative government has released what it’s calling a five-year road map for hydrogen development, predicting the most abundant chemical element on earth will turn New Brunswick into a clean-energy powerhouse.

The 37-page document broadly outlines seven steps that will be taken to put the province in a better place to harvest the energy, which can be liquified and transported greater distances than, say, electrical power that loses energy the longer it goes down a transmission line.

Hydrogen is also viewed as a good replacement for natural gas, the kind of fuel often used for incredibly high heat in heavy industry, of which the province has an abundance.

“As the sector emerges and the markets present themselves, we want to send a strong message that New Brunswick is putting together a framework to be able to play in the game,” said Energy Minister Mike Holland in an interview Tuesday.

New Brunswick’s climate change action plan calls upon the province to reduce greenhouse gases to net zero by 2050 to slow down global warming and protect future generations from catastrophic environmental changes.

In 2021, the latest year with available figures, New Brunswick emitted 11.9 megatonnes of greenhouse gases, lower than the Canadian average but high by world standards. It aims at getting to 10.3 megatonnes by 2030 and zero by 2050, with hydrogen leading the way.

There are two prime locations where the province sees hydrogen being developed: the Irving Oil refinery, which is already the largest producer of hydrogen in Atlantic Canada and one of the largest producers in Canada – generating more than 200 tonnes of hydrogen per day, which is used to lower the sulphur content of petroleum products at the Saint John refinery.

In 2022, the privately held company announced plans to buy a 5-megawatt electrolyzer, developed by New York hydrogen technology company Plug Power, with the hopes of having it fully operational within two years. Instead of using natural gas to produce the hydrogen energy – which is more carbon intensive – the new electrolyzer would use electricity from the local electrical grid.

The new technology is supposed to drive down emissions at the refinery, and create a cleaner product for its customers. Once fully operational, the electrolyzer is supposed to produce two tonnes of hydrogen a day – the equivalent to fuelling 60 buses with hydrogen.

That same year, the Port of Belledune in northern New Brunswick signed an agreement with Cross River Infrastructure Partners to develop a green hydrogen production facility.

The Belledune project would use 200 megawatts of clean firm power to produce green ammonia fuel for export that could be shipped overseas to Europe and other markets. The two partners hope to have the facility online by 2027.

We want to send a strong message that we’re ready and we have a plan showing what we’re still willing to do to show we’re front and centre on capitalizing on this industry.

Mike Holland

Holland says with New Brunswick already ahead of most jurisdictions when it comes to hydrogen development, it would be foolish not to take advantage of it.

The idea of the roadmap is to encourage the private sector to take advantage of hydrogen, through its own investments.

The government predicts domestic sales of New Brunswick hydrogen could reach up to $349 million in 2050 and a total of $1.9 billion with an export market.

“There’s a sector and market emerging, and we’ve got the ingredients of preparedness that other jurisdictions don’t,” the energy minister said. “We also have familiarity with the wind sector, that can be used to help produce hydrogen energy. Add that to the attributes of deep-water, ice-free ports, a heavily industrialized sector, and you’re ahead of the game. We don’t purport to be the only ones developing hydrogen, but we want to send a strong message that we’re ready and we have a plan showing what we’re still willing to do to show we’re front and centre on capitalizing on this industry.”