Wheatland County has made several big moves to position itself as a major player in the hydrogen energy market, and the early investments may see a significant payoff down the road. A recent Government of Alberta press release explained the government is looking into developing hydrogen fuelling stations across the province to power heavy duty commercial vehicles, and is currently seeking input from interested parties on what they think.

Minister of Energy Peter Guthrie explained submissions are open until March 10, so it's too early to say whether or not these fuelling stations will become a reality, as they will evaluate all feedback first and go from there. However, if it were to happen, it would be a province wide initiative.

"We're looking at what would be ideal locations because having one central location is not going to work for a commercial truck driver that's going to Fort McMurray, so we need to look strategically throughout the province for locations that would make sense. You'd be looking at Calgary, Edmonton. Lethbridge Fort McMurray, Grande Prairie, those types of locations for your initial start and then move from there," he said.

Should these fuelling stations become a reality, Wheatland County could be well positioned to benefit economically. With the county looking to expand its hydrogen energy production — on top of already existing plants — this could be a big way for the county to get a significant portion of what some experts are predicting to be a $47 billion industry by 2050.

While the future of fuelling stations is speculative, as Guthrie emphasized that no decision will be made until the government reviews submissions from the community, he does see a bright future regarding hydrogen energy beyond this one specific aspect.

"Commercially speaking, there's a lot of opportunity there, and some opportunity for us to export that to foreign markets. We've had countries such as Japan, Germany, South Korea, reaching out to Canada and they're in need of securing their energy future, so they're looking to do deals with Canada and Alberta on liquid natural gas. But hydrogen is also a player in there."

While Guthrie is optimistic about hydrogen energy in Alberta, he added it won't be a money maker right away, as it will take a lot of time and money to set up the proper infrastructure province wide.

"It's not a moneymaker for you initially, but you need to build that market and it looks like there is a lot of interest in it. It's going to take time to be able to get the market and part of that means that you need to have the framework in place and that's what we're looking at."

Guthrie, along with several other parties involved in hydrogen, also all said hydrogen energy will not eat into Alberta's oil and gas sector, so any anxieties about job losses or an economic downturn won't be a problem.

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