Hydrogen is coming to Calgary.
The announcement today of a hydrogen fuelling station in Calgary, built by Azolla Hydrogen Ltd. with funding support from Emissions Reduction Alberta (ERA), is a big deal. Not just for what it means for hydrogen development in the city, but for what it unlocks in Alberta’s hydrogen ecosystem more broadly.
Combined with Azolla’s soon-to-be-upgraded fuelling station in Edmonton, this new station will open up Canada’s longest hydrogen heavy-duty transportation corridor, located right here in Alberta, along the province’s busiest freight route. Better still, the project uses local manufacturing and operational expertise, a “Made in Alberta” win.
The idea behind a Calgary-Edmonton corridor is not new. My early mentor at the Transition Accelerator, Dr. David B Layzell, first conceived and talked about it in 2020 in his report “Building a Transition Pathway to a Vibrant Hydrogen Economy in the Alberta Industrial Heartland,” and the possibility of that corridor is one of the main reasons The Transition Accelerator / L’Accélérateur de transition recommended Edmonton and Calgary as ideal sites for early hydrogen hubs.
As highlighted by the Alberta Zero Emission Hydrogen Transit Project, we know there are use cases where battery electric technology faces challenges: long routes and heavy loads in heavy-duty trucking, and municipal fleets where frigid Albertan temperatures have proven problematic for current battery technology. We covered those in more detail in the Calgary Region Hydrogen Hub’s webinar “Hydrogen in Transit Fleets: How Does it Stack Up?”.
This new station will open up Canada’s longest hydrogen heavy-duty transportation corridor, located right here in Alberta.
Durable hydrogen demand is a critical requirement for successful hydrogen deployment — and make no mistake, it has been made more challenging with the societal shift towards prioritizing affordability today. Corridors like the one in today’s announcement are the key to securing that demand and building early market scale in hydrogen mobility.
Having a transportation corridor between Edmonton and Calgary reduces the risk organizations in the province face when adopting hydrogen, since they know fuel will be available. It also provides greater versatility in actually utilizing the vehicles, allowing for a mix of inter- and intra-city uses.
Add this week’s announcement of the Brooks Newell Region hydrogen project (also funded by ERA) and we can begin to envision heavy duty vehicles flowing not only north to Edmonton, but east on Highway 1 as well. It’s an exciting thought, and the Calgary Region Hydrogen Hub is excited to continue supporting hydrogen projects such as these in Southern Alberta.
Importantly, these corridors are developing around real demand. Corridors should be led directly by the companies, fleets, fuel providers, manufacturers, and communities that will actually use them. That is how we ensure public funding is supporting infrastructure that is needed, utilized, and capable of scaling.
Energy transitions do not occur in a straight line; there will be hype, setbacks, and recalibrations. We should expect this, celebrate it, and keep moving forward along the technology learning curve. Alberta needs to continue doing what it does best: finding innovative ways to meet the energy needs of a rapidly changing world, using our expertise in fuel diversification and technology manufacturing to ensure resiliency in our energy system and realize new economic opportunities.
It is important to recognize the key role organizations such as Emissions Reductions Alberta play in this environment. Without early-stage funding, great “Made in Alberta” technologies may not get an opportunity to advance towards commercialization and scale. Today’s announcement gets it exactly right: a local innovator getting the support it needs to build much-needed infrastructure that unlocks new possibilities, not just in Calgary, but across the province and beyond.
One last thing: stay tuned for a soon-to-be-released Hub report focused on transportation corridors — why they matter, and the challenges that need to be overcome to ensure they stay robust and can scale.
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