Western Hemisphere 2021 Energy Landscape and Outlook

The Vancouver Olympics was a successful public relations campaign for Ballard but less so for the municipalities that had to keep operating the buses after the games were finished. By 2013, all of the buses were converted to diesel due to high operating costs and complaints of poor performance in cold weather (Ziedler 2013). Environmental groups also questioned the green impact of the buses since hydrogen had to be brought from Quebec. Not long after, the aspirations for a hydrogen economy lost some of its shine as electric vehicles (EVs) started to take off and the fracking revolution reduced gas prices and the fear of fossil fuel shortages. But by 2018 the hydrogen story came back in full force again. A growing number of countries were publishing visions, roadmaps and/or strategies for the deployment of a hydrogen economy. (IRENA 2020).

Canada’s Hydrogen Strategy: Is this Time Different? By Roger Tissot Like La Bamba, Canadian hydrogen becomes popular every twenty years or so. After GE abandoned the concept, and thanks to funding from the Canadian Department of Defense, the hydrogen story in Canada became almost synonymous with Ballard Power System, a Vancouver corporation. The resurgence of hydrogen is derived from its unique number of advantages as a climate solution, particularly in sectors that are the most difficult to decarbonize and where alternatives are limited. Back to the Canadian hydrogen tale. In the 1980’s Ballard made a major technological breakthrough coinciding with California’s new zero emission mandate (McDowall 2010 ). More than a decade later Ballard, with support of the Federal and Provincial governments was ready to showcase its technology in buses to be used at the Vancouver Winter Olympics: Ballard provided the fuel cells, New Flyer, a bus manufacturer from Winnipeg, the buses, while Air Liquide from France and HTEC from Vancouver provided the hydrogen.

In December 2020, the Government of Canada published its Hydrogen Strategy, following a similar document published by the Province of Alberta.

Politically, hydrogen is one of those rare technical options that could help bring together the new political solitudes of Canada: The west – mostly Alberta – and its strong dependency on fossil fuels, has been increasingly alienated

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