Canadian Government Working To Expand Energy Infrastructure

According to Politico Pro, the Canadian government has put out a call for experts to help the country determine how to blend hydrogen into the country’s existing and new natural gas infrastructure. Specifically, the Natural Resources Canada requested proposals to fill the “knowledge gaps on the extent to which existing (and potential new) infrastructure for natural gas systems could be leveraged to support and transport blended hydrogen.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the effort could help increase Canadian energy exports to Europe. As reported by CTV News, the prime minister also said that Europe’s reliance on Russian oil and gas cannot continue, “because the billions of dollars that is sent to Russia for its oil and gas is then used to continue this illegal war against Ukrainians.”

The Canadian efforts “will include planning and developing new infrastructure to support early development of the energy source,” Politico reported. Several Canadian jurisdictions and other locations worldwide have started programs to blend hydrogen into existing natural gas setups, but while Canada is one of the world’s largest natural gas producers, it does not have infrastructure to ship the energy across the county.

The new research effort, which according to Politico will include an examination of potential U.S. markets for hydrogen blending, will look into the regulations and codes that must be satisfied to begin such a project.