NDP releases vision for hydrogen sector
Exploring the feasibility of a hydrogen pipeline is a key part of NDP Leader Rachel Notley's plan for growing the province's sector.
The detailed plan, costed at a potential $350 million and released Friday, has 11 proposals including government loan guarantees for pipeline infrastructure, production hubs and commercial applications, as well as royalty credits to attract large hydrogen projects.
At the top of the list is creating an expert task force to conduct a study on the business case for a pipeline that could allow Alberta to export hydrogen globally.
The study would look at existing pipeline corridors and drum up public support by working with industry, investors and partners in potential export markets like South Korea, Japan and California.
Notley said the party's ideas are meant to spur a conversation and start laying the groundwork for securing investment and future jobs.
“Banking on corporate handouts — that's not working — and waiting to see who is president of the U.S. — also, not working,” said Notley, referring to the UCP government's $1.6-billion equity investment in 2020 in TC Energy's Keystone XL pipeline, a project Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has said he would kill.
The plan is the first of many diversification discussion papers the Alberta New Democrats plan to release, aimed at taking advantage of what Notley calls a “generational economic shift.”
Notley admitted the plan wasn't a silver bullet to solve the province's economic challenges, and wouldn't create a massive amount of jobs at the outset.
The NDP proposals go beyond the UCP government's hydrogen plan, part of its recently announced natural gas strategy, which is focused on the production of blue hydrogen by using natural gas and existing carbon capture and storage facilities, with a goal to be exporting the chemical globally by 2040. Notley said even if Alberta can hit that target, it would be at least a decade late to the international party.
The NDP said the government's plan is too vague and doesn't offer specific industry incentives. Citing multi-million and multi-billion dollar investments in other jurisdictions like Australia and Germany, the NDP plan argues the province needs to make big moves and investment now, or Alberta risks being left behind.
Among those moves are developing more green hydrogen, which is produced with renewable energy, as well as putting $50 million into hydrogen research and $70 million into pilot projects and innovation.
Kavi Bal, press secretary to Energy Minister Sonya Savage, said in a statement that the government's strategy announced 10 days earlier lays out a foundation for hydrogen development while actively participating in Alberta's Industrial Heartland Hydrogen Task Force alongside business and industry.
A study for that task force notes that hydrogen has the potential to become a $100-billion industry annually in Canada.
“We welcome ideas from others, but it's hard not to note that the NDP did nothing on this during their four years in government,” Bal said.
Producing hydrogen efficiently on a mass scale presents major challenges, given the massive amounts of energy required for refinement, he said.
“The NDP simply promising to throw vast sums of other peoples' money at a problem doesn't solve the technological challenges overnight.”
While the details of the UCP'S hydrogen strategy are set to be released next spring, Premier Jason Kenney said at an Oct. 6 announcement many initiatives will be funded by the Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction (TIER) levy, Alberta's version of a carbon tax paid for by the province's largest greenhouse gas emitters.