Research, Engagement, and Advocacy Activities
May 19, 2021 (TORONTO, ON) – The province of Ontario is well-positioned to be a potential hydrogen cluster, made up of producers, end users, and the supporting infrastructure. The Hydrogen Business Council as an organization and an industry community believes in this and strives to steer this potential towards becoming a reality. With that, this update presents highlights of the work — aside from organizing the 2021 virtual conference — that the HBC has been up to since last year’s conference in November 2020.
Research on Recommendations for Hydrogen Strategy in Ontario
As participants of last year’s conference may recall, the Hydrogen Business Council released a draft report outlining policy and deployment recommendations for low-carbon hydrogen in the province, with the aim of gathering industry and stakeholder feedback on it for developing a finalized version. Research and writing for the report was made possible through a Mitacs collaboration by the HBC together with researchers at the University of Waterloo, who conducted the work in the lead-up to the conference. The draft’s release was particularly timely since Jeff Yurek, Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP) for Ontario, first announced the ministry’s launch of its consultation for developing a provincial hydrogen strategy in his keynote earlier in the conference.
Following the event, the HBC gathered feedback on the draft report through a survey to conference participants. Finally, the HBC and researchers used the insights in completing the finalized guidance report, Recommendations for an Ontario Low-Carbon Hydrogen Strategy, and were able to submit it to the MECP in January 2021 as substantial input to its call for comment. The story doesn’t end there though….
Leadership in MECP’s Hydrogen Strategy Working Group
By February 2021, the MECP established a new Hydrogen Strategy Working Group to further inform hydrogen strategy development and appointed HBC Executive Director, Robert Stasko, to co-chair the working group with ministry staff. The working group consists of experts assembled from across industry and academia, who advise on how hydrogen can be used across various sectors and how Ontario compete in the global hydrogen market. The group has been conducting 2-3 meetings every month, each time to contribute insights in a different focus area. Consultation with the working group concludes at the end of June 2021, after which point, the ministry will work to refine the provincial hydrogen strategy.
Speaking Engagements & More Upcoming Events
Since the virtual conference last fall, the HBC has represented hydrogen – or has scheduled to do so – in several events.
- On January 13, Robert Stasko spoke on policy recommendations in the online workshop “Hydrogen Energy Technologies: Challenges and Opportunities” from the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science at Ontario Tech University.
- Coming up on June 9, Robert will moderate a panel of hydrogen industry experts specifically in the “Leading the Charge” conference from Ryerson University’s Centre for Urban Energy.
- On June 30, the HBC in partnership with Plug’n Drive and Women in Renewable Energy (WiRE) will present an informative webinar “Batteries & Hydrogen Fuel Cells Electrifying Transport – Two Ways to Charge”.
Be sure to follow the links and mark your calendars for those two upcoming events above!
The past year (or a bit more) has certainly been an exciting time in the hydrogen technologies space. At the HBC, we hope that you’ll join us for our upcoming virtual conference to include it as one of your hydrogen highlights the year 2021!
