Alberta Press Release
The Alberta government will invest $50 million to create the new centre, which will drive innovation in the production, deployment and use of hydrogen across the economy. The centre is a pillar in Alberta’s Hydrogen Roadmap, which lays out the path to growing the provincial hydrogen economy and accessing global markets.
Alberta is already the largest hydrogen producer in Canada. Hydrogen is expected to be a $2.5-trillion to $11-trillion industry worldwide by 2050 and Alberta is ready to emerge as a leader in that global market.
The centre of excellence will support research, development and demonstration that helps companies and entrepreneurs building hydrogen technologies. It will bring together industry, researchers and small businesses from across the province to take technology that is in the early stages of development and get it ready to move into the global marketplace.
The centre of excellence will be funded through Alberta’s Technology, Innovation and Emissions Reduction (TIER) program. It will aim to draw in an additional $150 million from other levels of government and private sector investments over a four-year time period.
Alberta Innovates, with its proven track record of accelerating Alberta-made technologies, will operate the centre of excellence and integrate it into Alberta’s existing innovation support systems to deliver testing, demonstration, piloting and validation capabilities needed for a hydrogen economy in Alberta.
Early goals will include identifying investment and partnership opportunities as well as collaborating across the hydrogen value chain to establish hydrogen research and innovation programs.
Quick facts
- The Clean Hydrogen Centre of Excellence will receive $40 million in operating funding over the next four years, alongside $10 million in capital funding over the next two years.
- Alberta’s hydrogen roadmap aims to reduce 14 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions by incorporating clean hydrogen into existing industries.
- The province is also in an excellent position to export clean hydrogen around the world, with studies showing Alberta can produce some of the lowest-cost clean hydrogen in the world.
- The roadmap also calls for tens of thousands of construction jobs and billions of dollars of investment in the production and use of hydrogen in the province over the next eight years.
