The establishment of Ontario's Hydrogen Innovation Fund is being welcomed locally.
The province announced on Monday it will invest $15 million over the next three years to kickstart and develop opportunities for hydrogen to be integrated into Ontario’s clean electricity system, including hydrogen electricity storage.
Sarnia-Lambton Economic Partnership [SLEP] Senior Economic Development Officer Matthew Slotwinski said the funds will be critical to the development and further implementation of the hydrogen economy in Ontario.
"We see this as having tremendous potential opportunities to leverage towards the commercialization of new technologies, implementation of existing technologies utilizing existing assets in the area, and really for modifications of existing facilities and infrastructures to leverage the low carbon hydrogen economy moving forward," said Slotwinski.
He said SLEP will be identifying who is most applicable for the fund and for what it is most applicable.
"We certainly hope that a lot of activity tied to this fund will ultimately take place in the Sarnia-Lambton region. There's no doubt that there's the potential for a significant amount of investment, commercialization, and innovation of new technologies that are entirely applicable to our understanding of what this fund should link into."
Slotwinski said they may even be able to draw stakeholders into the area to take advantage of the fund.
"This is really a key step in the Ontario government committing to the hydrogen economy, and really to committing towards decarbonization across a variety of levels. Whether that's the energy grid, whether that's into the chemicals industry, this shows that they are committed to making things happen and to being competitive with many of the other jurisdictions across Canada and North America."
Slotwinski said it will lead to new investment, new job creation and a diversification of an already strong economy.
Applications for the Hydrogen Innovation Fund, to be administered by the Independent Electricity System Operator, will open in April 2023.
Natural Resources Canada modelling shows that hydrogen could make up about 30 per cent of Canada's fuels and feedstock by 2050 and create 100,000 jobs in Ontario.
