Canada’s first fully hydrogen-powered community – to be called Bremner – is to be built and studied in Alberta.
Utility provider ATCO and real estate developer Qualico are partnering on the community in Strathcona County near Edmonton. Three hundred homes are proposed for construction in the first two stages of development.
The area is projected to eventually house 85,000 people. Construction is expected to start this year – while the first residents should be able to move into their new homes in 2025.
Funding for the feasibility study was announced on Tuesday by Alberta Innovates, with Atco Gas getting $2 million for its study. Jason Sharpe, president of Atco Gas, said the study would look at infrastructure needed to get hydrogen into homes, regulations, and how it would be priced for consumers, according to CBC Canada.
“The intent is, with a pure hydrogen home, everything will be pretty much the same with respect to building these new homes. So the only thing that we’re really changing is the source of energy, which is from natural gas to pure hydrogen,” Qualico’s vice president of community development in northern Alberta Brad Armstrong explained, reports HeartRadio.
“So the only changes that you might have are the regulators, or the meters, on the exterior part of the house. And then the furnace appliance itself.” Armstrong added that by using hydrogen as a source of energy, the price of construction shouldn’t change that much.
While ATCO and Qualico are aiming to have the new homes fully fuelled by hydrogen from the get-go, they acknowledged Tuesday that doing so depends on getting all of the necessary approvals in time and on the availability of hydrogen-equipped appliances – like cooktops – in Canada.
“We believe the demand is going to be there because what we’re hearing from consumers is that everybody has an interest in reducing their carbon footprint,” Armstrong said.
“The question is: Do they want to pay for it or are they prepared to pay for it? And we’re hoping that in Bremner they’ll be able to find an affordable house that has zero emissions heating and they can reduce their carbon footprint.”
