• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
The climate news that makes a difference.
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
  FEATURED
Renewables ‘Set to Soar’ with 440 GW of New Installations in 2023: IEA June 4, 2023
Greek Industrial Giant Announces 1.4-GW Alberta Solar Farm, Canada’s Biggest June 4, 2023
Shift to Remote Work Cuts Commutes, Frees Downtown Space for Affordable Housing June 4, 2023
2.7M Hectares Lost, Nova Scotia at Ground Zero in ‘Unprecedented’ Early Wildfire Season June 4, 2023
Is Equinor’s Bay du Nord ‘Delay’ a Cancellation in Slow Motion? June 1, 2023
Next
Prev

Weak Ontario Hydrogen Strategy Mirrors Industry Wish List

April 13, 2022
Reading time: 3 minutes
Primary Author: Clifford Maynes @CJMaynes

/MotorBiscuit

/MotorBiscuit

5
SHARES
 

The Ontario government’s new hydrogen strategy reflects a “lobbyist feeding frenzy” and lacks “evidence, analysis, and critical thought,” says a climate policy expert.

A new provincial report, Ontario’s Low Carbon Hydrogen Strategy, is a “cheerleading” document that is overly optimistic about hydrogen’s potential for decarbonizing the economy, said York University professor Mark Winfield. That’s unfortunate, he added, because hydrogen has legitimate niche roles in Ontario’s energy future.

  • Be among the first to read The Energy Mix Weekender
  • A brand new weekly digest containing exclusive and essential climate stories from around the world.
  • The Weekender:The climate news you need.
Subscribe

“We have to separate the sales pitch from a rigorous technical and economic analysis of where hydrogen makes sense,” Winfield said.

One pathway outlined in the strategy is the use of carbon capture and storage (CCS) to turn “grey hydrogen,” a carbon-intensive approach using natural gas feedstock, into ostensibly low-carbon “blue hydrogen”. The strategy doesn’t acknowledge that the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of CCS have yet to be demonstrated at scale.

Moreover, most of Ontario’s geology is unsuited to underground carbon storage, Winfield said. The strategy identifies potential in the southwest of the province, but geologically speaking, the area is “fractured Swiss cheese,” subject to earthquakes, and riddled with 200 years of often uncharted oil, gas, and brine wells. Winfield cited the August, 2021 gas explosion in Wheatley, Ontario, thought to have resulted from a leaking abandoned well, as an example of the hazards that could be in store.

The report advocates the use of surplus electricity to create hydrogen through electrolysis, said to be low-carbon because the grid is largely carbon-free. “This makes no sense at all,” Winfield said. The evidence is readily available in official electricity system projections that the province’s baseload surplus will soon disappear, and that any grid electricity used for hydrogen will add directly to fossil generation. A generating shortfall is expected due to the impending retirement of the Pickering nuclear plant, beginning in 2024, and the refurbishment of reactors at Darlington and Bruce.

“The plan is to make up the shortfall by activating Ontario’s natural gas fired generating capacity,” Winfield said, so that electricity used to create hydrogen will contribute directly to GHG emissions.

Although the initial focus is on using a purported surplus of electricity in the Ontario grid, the strategy implies that new nuclear capacity⁠—a small modular reactor planned for the Darlington site⁠—will be available to make “green hydrogen.” But nuclear is “not cost-effective” relative to renewables, Winfield said. The cheapest sources for electrolysis of hydrogen would be dedicated solar and wind generation.

The Ontario strategy cites biomass as another path to hydrogen. But Winfield said that approach be costly and energy-intensive. “Very specific and targeted technological analysis is needed to identify where this might be appropriate,” he said.

The most promising applications for hydrogen in Ontario are “hard to decarbonize” sectors such as steel, cement, petrochemicals, fertilizer, marine transportation, and road freight. But the strategy doesn’t engage in “useful reflection on cost-effectiveness, limitations, and problems” with particular hydrogen applications, Winfield said. The alternative is to replace fossil fuels directly through electrification rather than using electrolysis to manufacture hydrogen, an approach is “on the order of 10 times less efficient.”

Hydrogen fuel cells, promoted in the strategy, are “desperately expensive,” he said. “Twenty years ago, fuel cells were going to be the next big thing. But nothing happened.” Winfield said there has been “no breakthrough” in the past two decades that would improve the prospects.

According to the strategy, the Ontario government takes its lead in hydrogen development from the private sector. This shows in the document, which is largely an amalgam of the campaigns of the private sector players who were at the table. Working group members were almost entirely industry representatives.

“The government has to engage in some serious investigation and analysis before it starts handing out large taxpayer subsidies to these hydrogen initiatives,” Winfield said. The federal government has its own Hydrogen Strategy for Canada, he added, but it’s “not really any better” than the Ontario plan.



in Bioenergy, Canada, Clean Electricity Grid, Energy Politics, Hydrogen, Nuclear, Oil & Gas, Ontario, Solar, Sub-National Governments, Wind

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

sunrise windmill
International Agencies & Studies

Renewables ‘Set to Soar’ with 440 GW of New Installations in 2023: IEA

June 5, 2023
147
Pixabay
Solar

Greek Industrial Giant Announces 1.4-GW Alberta Solar Farm, Canada’s Biggest

June 4, 2023
130
Oregon Department of Transportation/flickr
Cities & Communities

Shift to Remote Work Cuts Commutes, Frees Downtown Space for Affordable Housing

June 5, 2023
86

Comments 2

  1. Frances Deverell says:
    1 year ago

    Informative and useful analysis. This is an important area for us all to understand or we’ll all be blinded by the usual greenwashing of the fossil fuel sector.

    Reply
  2. Frances Deverell says:
    1 year ago

    We need publicly funded independent research in these areas that put science ahead of private interest.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

/MaxPixels

‘Substantial Damage’, No Injuries as Freight Train Hits Wind Turbine Blade

May 25, 2022
14.7k
sunrise windmill

Renewables ‘Set to Soar’ with 440 GW of New Installations in 2023: IEA

June 5, 2023
147
Natural Resources Canada

2.7M Hectares Lost, Nova Scotia at Ground Zero in ‘Unprecedented’ Early Wildfire Season

June 4, 2023
170
Pixabay

Greek Industrial Giant Announces 1.4-GW Alberta Solar Farm, Canada’s Biggest

June 4, 2023
130
debannja/Pixabay

Austin, Texas Council Committee Backs Fossil Non-Proliferation Treaty

June 4, 2023
92
Oregon Department of Transportation/flickr

Shift to Remote Work Cuts Commutes, Frees Downtown Space for Affordable Housing

June 5, 2023
86

Recent Posts

Clairewych/Pixabay

Demand Surges for Giant Heat Pumps as Europe Turns to District Heating

June 4, 2023
87
nicolasdebraypointcom/pixabay

Factor Gender into Transportation Planning, IISD Analyst Urges Policy-Makers

June 4, 2023
39
moerschy / Pixabay

Federal Climate Plans Must Embrace Community-Driven Resilience

June 4, 2023
55
Equinor

Is Equinor’s Bay du Nord ‘Delay’ a Cancellation in Slow Motion?

June 1, 2023
879
Ottawa Renewable Energy Co-op/Facebook

‘Hinge Moment’ for Humanity Demands ‘YIMBY’ Mentality: McKibben

June 1, 2023
79
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Notley

Notley Would Have Backed Carbon Capture Subsidies, Smith Less Certain: Ex-Pipeline Exec

June 1, 2023
100
Next Post
Chebyshev1983/Wikimedia

Fix Fossil Leaks to Cut Soaring Atmospheric Methane, NOAA Urges

The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

Copyright 2023 © Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Proudly partnering with…

scf_withtagline
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}