Australia’s Fortescue Ltd. has withdrawn its hydrogen project from being reviewed by British Columbia’s environmental regulator, leaving the company’s plans on hold indefinitely in the province.
Fortescue FSUGY submitted an initial project description last year to the provincial Environmental Assessment Office to produce “green hydrogen” in Prince George, B.C., for domestic consumption and for exporting to Asia, using ammonia as the carrier for hydrogen exports.
But climate activists have warned that Fortescue’s Coyote project would require enormous amounts of hydroelectricity – 900 megawatts for the electrolysis process for hydrogen and another 100 megawatts for ammonia synthesis.
To put that in perspective, the $16-billion Site C hydroelectric dam in northeastern B.C. will add 1,100 megawatts of capacity when fully completed in 2025.
“Fortescue recently completed an evaluation of our global project portfolio, with an aim to prioritize the projects in locations with favourable green energy policies and affordable and reliable renewable energy,” Andrew Vesey, president of Fortescue’s North American operations, said in a letter dated Sept. 26 to the Environmental Assessment Office. The regulator publicly released the letter this week.
Green hydrogen is the cleanest version of hydrogen, but it requires huge amounts of renewable energy such as hydroelectricity.
“We have focused our energy project portfolio to include a pipeline of commercially viable projects to carry us forward and meet future demand, while acting in the best interests of our shareholders. With that, we have decided to put on hold our Project Coyote in Prince George until we are able to secure more favourable power pricing and availability,” Mr. Vesey said.
Fortescue envisaged transporting ammonia by rail, using Canadian National Railway Co.’s CNR-T tracks from Prince George to Trigon Pacific Terminals Ltd.’s new export facility, which is slated to open in 2027 at the Port of Prince Rupert on the West Coast.
Trigon’s $163-million project is called Berth 2 Beyond Carbon, or B2BC, with ammonia among the commodities scheduled to be shipped to Asia. The federal government is contributing $75-million toward construction.
Australian billionaire Andrew Forrest, the founder and executive chairman of Fortescue, has run into challenges globally in trying to diversify the company, whose businesses include iron ore mining, and transform it into a clean-energy powerhouse.
There had been high hopes in business and government circles that the B.C. Interior could become a hydrogen hub, spurred by Fortescue’s ambitious proposal.
“Prince George is strategically positioned to take advantage of the expanding hydrogen economy,” the federal government said in a statement in July.