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Energy

Canadian hydrogen is not a silver bullet for Germany’s energy needs

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5 minute read

From Resource Works

Germany bet big on hydrogen, an infant technology in terms of commercial viability. Canada also jumped on the hydrogen train at a time when they should have been doubling down on LNG exports, a resource Canada has in abundance

Canada and Germany had, and probably still have, such mighty ambitions for their hydrogen. Lauded as a can’t-miss step in the journey towards a clean energy utopia that would position Canada as a world leader in hydrogen, it is now cracking before it even really gets underway.

The goal of the deal was a good one. Germany wanted to reduce its reliance on vast amounts of Russian gas following the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. However, the nonstop delays and challenges of realizing a Canada-Germany hydrogen deal have exposed the folly of going all in on a non-developed energy source at the cost of an existing one. These problems make it very clear that both Canada and Germany have miscalculated by placing all their eggs in one basket for a long-term goal, instead of turning to alternatives like liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the short term.

The federal government announced that there was no “business case” for exporting LNG to Europe at the time.

Hydrogen has a good future as a clean, renewable source of energy, and that is undeniable. It is not going to happen overnight as it will require large-scale facilities for production and distribution, especially for green hydrogen. Canada and Germany signed their hydrogen agreement in 2022, aimed at jumpstarting Canadian hydrogen exports by 2025.

We are now sitting at the end of 2024, and the necessary infrastructure is not close to being completed. Facilities in Atlantic Canada intended to help supply the hydrogen are still in their planning stages, while German investment is falling behind.

As far as logistics go, hydrogen presents a huge challenge. To produce hydrogen, massive amounts of energy are needed, and the plan to use wind energy to power these facilities is very impractical. Hydrogen also must be converted into ammonia for shipment, which is another energy-intensive and expensive process. When ammonia does theoretically reach Germany, up to 80 percent of the original energy load is expected to have been lost. If such a loss could be captured in a photo, it could slot into the dictionary for the word “inefficient.”

Germany needs energy security given its divorce from Russian gas, and this demanded a far more immediate response in 2022. Rather than diversifying energy imports and turning to short-term solutions like Canadian LNG, Germany bet big on hydrogen, an infant technology in terms of commercial viability. Canada also jumped on the hydrogen train at a time when they should have been doubling down on LNG exports, a resource Canada has in abundance, and which, like most fossil fuels, can be stored and shipped with speed and efficiency.

While hydrogen has a future, refusing to embrace LNG as an export to Europe was a mistake when responding to Europe’s energy crisis. Both the United States and Qatar secured long-term contracts for LNG exports to Europe, while Canada has been absent from the table. Germany itself invested heavily in floating LNG terminals, highlighting how natural gas will remain a vital part of the European energy mix for years to come.

There is great irony in the fact that natural gas, while still emitting more than hydrogen, produces far fewer emissions than coal, which many European states have been forced to turn to in the wake of energy shortfalls. Germany is one of the world’s most prolific consumers of coal, and that has only intensified with the cutoff of Russian gas, undermining its ambitious climate goals. Canadian LNG should have played a greater role while hydrogen infrastructure was constructed in Canada, and investment capital was raised in Germany.

What the ongoing delays and inefficiencies in the Canada-Germany hydrogen deal demonstrate is a cautionary tale. While hydrogen has a key role to play in the future of global energy, it is not a silver bullet in the short term.

Bjorn Lomborg

The stupidity of Net Zero | Bjorn Lomborg on how climate alarmism leads to economic crisis

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From spiked on YouTube

Note: This interview is focused on Europe and the UK.  It very much applies to Canada. The 2025 Federal Election which will see Canadians choose between a more common sense approach, and spending the next 4 years continuing down the path of pursuing “The Stupidity of Net Zero”.

European industry is in freefall, and Net Zero is to blame.

Here, climate economist Bjorn Lomborg – author of Best Things First and False Alarm – explains how panic over climate change is doing far more damage than climate change itself.  Swapping cheap and dependable fossil fuels for unreliable and expensive renewables costs our economies trillions, but for little environmental gain, Lomborg says.

Plus, he tackles the myth of the ‘climate apocalypse’ and explains why there are more polar bears than ever.

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Energy

Trump signs four executive orders promoting coal industry

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From The Center Square

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President Donald Trump signed four executive orders Tuesday promoting the deregulation and expansion of the “beautiful, clean coal” industry in the U.S.

The first order White House Staff Secretary Will Scharf said might be “one of the most significant executive orders” the president has issued so far.

“This directs all departments and agencies of the federal government to end all discriminatory policies against the coal industry. This ends the leasing moratorium that prevents new coal projects on federal land, and it’s going to accelerate all permitting and funding for new coal projects,” Scharf said.

The other executive orders attempt to prevent some Biden-era policies from going into effect that would have caused the shuttering of dozens of American coal plants; support policies promoting the continued incorporation of coal and fossil-fuel forms of energy into the grid; and direct the Department of Justice to investigate state policies that may illegally or unconstitutionally “[discriminate] against coal” and “secure sources of energy.”

The White House hosted a large group of coal miners, members of Congress, administration officials and others Tuesday afternoon to commemorate the “Unleashing American Energy” signing event.

“This is a very important day to me because we’re bringing back an industry that was abandoned despite the fact that it was just about the best – certainly the best in terms of power, real power,” Trump said.

Trump said he was “honored” to be signing the orders in defense of the coal industry and that the administration was “ending Joe Biden’s war on beautiful, clean coal once and for all.”

Trump also said his administration was working on something unique that would guarantee the coal industry would not be upended by changes in administrations, based on an idea he had “about 15 minutes” before the event.

“We’re going to give a guarantee that… if somebody comes in, they can’t change it at a whim. They’re gonna have to go through hell to close you up,” he said to the coal miners.

Under the new administration, the department of the interior has approved the expansion of the Spring Creek Mine in Montana, and Trump promised there would be more coal ventures in Alabama, North Dakota, Utah, Wyoming and other states.

“I think we’re gonna look back with great pride at what we’ve done today – not just in putting people to work but at really reawakening our country,” Trump said.

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