I was honoured to give the first introductory talk at the NRCan Hydrogen Economy Workshop held in Ottawa on August 15th, 2019.... and chaired the final "Bringing It All Together" panel as well. The purpose of the workshop is to inform a Canadian Government Hydrogen Strategy and the room was overflowing with super-smart and proactive people. Here is the 10 minute talk I gave to get things started in a good way. Enjoy!

WELCOME EVERYBODY! Right up front…I wish to declare that am a BIG hydrogen fan, a geologist, a tech head, a Fellow at the Energy Futures Lab, an innovator, a systems thinker, and WHAT FOLLOWS are my views only!

I drive a Tesla S electric car. And some people know it is fully electric and some people don’t. If you have a hydrogen fuel cell car it is likely most people don’t know it runs ONLY on hydrogen.

Just so you know, this photo has not been photo-shopped… I know because I took it myself from INSIDE the Tesla.

In the transportation sector, I think it makes most sense for personal vehicles to go electric, (...hence my car choice), while hydrogen is better suited to freight trucking, long distance flight, trains, shipping, ferries, and some agriculture uses. At 142MJ/kg… hydrogen is about 2.5x more energy dense than methane or propane by weight…which is a lot… and about half the energy density by volume. Still, in addition to transportation, hydrogen is well-suited to zero carbon emission heating for light/heavy industry, buildings, and homes.

New technologies for ALL these applications are ACTIVELY being developed TODAY.

Our carbon constrained world is now in the business of de-carbonizing existing energy systems… and building new ones. Germany just dedicated $100M Euros A YEAR to hydrogen research.

Canada can become a world leader in the hydrogen space too… because we have such a broad portfolio of opportunities to build our energy systems. We are so lucky compared to many other countries that do not have that luxury. Let’s not squander it. Because the alternative is to ride the current system into negative economics over time, without a revenue generating contingency plan.

The pace of change is increasing. It is THE dominant factor in business today. We have to realize that no sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be.

Worldwide we are replacing the silver bullet of hydrocarbons with the silver buckshot of multiple, low carbon energy sources. And because of its versatility, and potential for very low emissions generation, hydrogen has its name on a quite a few of those little silver buckshot balls.

If you ask me which energy sources Canada will be using in the medium term future, I would say ALL of them.

At this early stage…a useful question is…Why hasn’t hydrogen been a bigger part of our Canadian Energy Portfolio before now?

There are 4 key reasons:

1) Historically there has been no motivation…until now... as the status quo stuff just works

2) There has been a lack of systems thinking in the hydrogen space

3) Hydrogen economics have not been good enough…. and no STABLE policy framework

4) And lastly, we don’t YET have a Cogent Future Vision to draw us forward.

Let’s unpack these a little bit…

MOTIVATION

Two biggest elements that affect everything else on this planet are climate and energy.

These two things touch EVERYTHING else…every aspect of life.

Climate change/weather weirding is the key driver for decarbonizing world energy supplies now. Last week SE Australia experienced rare snowstorm complete with 40cm of snow and 100km winds, in places… while /Europe has been absolutely roasting.

…so nobody expects climate regulations to just go away.

That is the good news because it opens the way for a lucrative HYDROGEN ECONOMY to form. I say the sooner the better.

What else? LACK OF SYSTEMS THINKING around Hydrogen

Systems Thinking is my thing…it’s what I am best at.

It can be defined as a holistic approach to analysis that focuses on the way that a system's constituent parts interrelate with each other… within the context of larger systems.… and also over time.

Systems Thinking is absolutely key to building a Canadian Hydrogen Economy because all the moving parts (production, storage, transport, distribution, end use markets and international trade etc) are dependent on each other and all have to come into economic well-being at about the same time so they can connect and provide value.

… and that won’t be easy.

There are 4 stages to systems thinking … as I describe them, think about where we currently are regarding then Canadian Hydrogen Economy system.

Whenever we try to understand an unknown thing, at first we grossly over-simplify it… that is where we have to start... with basics… this is the simplification stage.

As, we learn more, we start to see all the disparate unrelated parts of a thing which is overwhelming and complicated …the complication stage.

As our understanding evolves we start to SEE the connections between each part and ALL the other parts …that is complexity understanding.

It is ONLY when we grasp complexity though, that we can reach simplicity stage, where it becomes possible to take wise, simple actions to support the highest interest of the whole system.

Why else? ECONOMICS AND POLICY

Hydrogen economics have not historically been very good outside of crude refining. Today 80% of all hydrogen in Canada is made and used in refineries. It comes from natural gas being converted to hydrogen and CO2 in Steam Methane Reformers. You will hear some of our speakers talk about various options for handling the resulting carbon…and others about various other ways to produce hydrogen from water… and they will not always agree with each other.

Economics are closely tied to the policy and regulatory environment IN WHICH THEY EXIST. So far that has not been designed for companies to be profitable in all parts of hydrogen supply chain.

Good regulation results in natural self-serving behaviors, that reinforce and balance processes across the entire system.

We are here today to begin the discussion about how to let hydrogen carve out its rightful place in the Canadian energy mix.

Why ELSE haven’t we done this already?

The lack of a CLEAR FUTURE VISION . We don’t know what WE WANT the future portfolio mix of new and old energy sources to look like.

Nor the roles of hydrogen in that portfolio

Nor how it ideally changes over time

Nor all the optimal pathways to get there.

Some of our speakers have bigger pathway ideas to share like:

• 3 western provinces building the necessary infrastructure to turn cheap stranded natural gas into affordable hydrogen for the rest of the country, and beyond, while trapping the CO2 in the abundant holes in our rocks. We know how to do that. We could move from exporting energy… to exporting energy without emissions. .

• Canada could build an E/W, coast to coast, energy corridor to move hydrocarbons, hydrogen as ammonia or methanol, fresh water and electricity. It would enhance country wide energy resilience given the nature of the new drought/flood weather patterns that are forming up. And it might just unite the country… like the railroad did.

Right now, 6 premiers are working on harmonizing provincial regulations to make this possible.

I REALLY wanted to be here because this is the start of it all…and we have to make sure we don’t falter at the start.

Are we going move the needle forward today? Maybe… I hope so…but we could also FAIL today.

What does failure look like?

• Getting stuck in polarization instead of open curiosity

• Not generously teaching each other what we know

• Not learning from each other especially about the areas of the hydrogen supply chain that is NOT our core business …

• Not creating linkages and relationships that will be needed to help each other in the future.

I know we only have a day together… but I was so enthused to see wide variety of people and disciplines attending today.

We have enough expertise and diversity in this room to get this 'Hydrogen Economy' thing started right.

This may be the single biggest business opportunity in human history.

What if…we, in this room, all got moving in about the same direction… at about the same time…together? What would that look like?









This is my hope.

And I, for one, am looking forward to this rich day with all of YOU!





Maggie Hanna, BSc PGeo

Energy Technology Scout and “Future Girl”, Consulting in Innovation

Common Ground Energy Corp

403.808.1628

mjhanna@telusplanet.net

Twitter @MagHanna

LinkedIn https://ca.linkedin.com/in/maggie-hanna-2b9b3316

"We are creating the womb from which tomorrow will be born."











