Mayor Simon Yu remains hopeful that a $2-billion green hydrogen project proposed for Prince George will be realized despite reports the venture has been put on the back burner and may not go ahead at all.
According to Business In Vancouver the project is among those that will be pushed back as the proponent, Fortescue Minerals Group, scales down its green hydrogen ambitions and focuses on those with better economics.
Fortescue has said it will be focusing initially on four green hydrogen projects in Australia, the U.S., Norway and Brazil.
The local initiative, dubbed Project Coyote, was first announced by Australian billionaire Andrew Forrest during a visit to Prince George in September 2023. If built it would be "one of the largest green hydrogen and green ammonia projects in Canada,"and employ more than 100 people once up and running, according to a posting on the Fortescue website
Reached Monday, Yu said the project has not been abandoned but rather is being paused temporarily and noted comments from Fortescue Energy CEO Mark Hutchinson during a call with analyst on Thursday, July 25 that the company is "steadfast" in its commitment to green hydrogen.
"However, our financial discipline always comes first. We will never do projects that are not economically viable," reads a transcript of the call.
The Prince George project would require 1,000 megawatts of power, which represents 90 per cent of the generating capacity of the $16 billion Site C dam and has led some observers to question if the project could ever be built, particularly given commitments other demands for the power.
But Yu is not one of them and remains optimistic the project will go ahead once the numbers have been crunched.
"The data is not available yet to us, to Fortescue, so therefore the decision cannot be made based on today's numbers, that is my understanding," Yu said.
"To me it is a pause, to me it is not a 'we're not going to do it' and so hopefully in the next few months once we learn the cost of the power and the various other electricity requirements from the other industries then I think BC Hydro and the Minister of Energy and Mines and Low Carbon Innovation will be moving ahead."
Project Coyote remains in the early stages of a review by the B.C. Environmental Assessment Office and so far Fortescue has not asked for a pause nor has it withdrawn the proposal.
