Hydrogen microgrids in the North

Most remote and northern communities in Canada rely on diesel for their electrical and thermal energy needs. Communities and governments are working toward diesel exit strategies, but the role of hydrogen technologies (which could serve both electrical and thermal demand) has yet to be explored.

In work published by researchers at APEX in the journal Applied Energy, in collaboration with colleagues at CanmetENERGY-Ottawa, investments in hydrogen microgrids are optimized across a large sample of remote and northern communities. Installed capacities, costs, hydrogen storage needs, and water resource requirements are estimated.

The team finds that hydrogen microgrids are cheaper, in levelized cost terms, than diesel systems in 28 of 37 communities investigated; if wind power capital costs escalate to CAD 20,000/kW, as recently seen in one project in the Canadian North, only 3 of the 37 communities net hydrogen microgrids that are cheaper than diesel variants. Hydrogen storage plays a large role in maintaining reliability and reducing cost—both it and water needs are modest. The former can be met with current technologies.