Description
Some vehicle manufacturers are building or designing zero emission vehicles that use hydrogen as a fuel.
While these technologies are still under development, hydrogen is expected to provide potential solutions for key commercial vehicles that are hard to electrify. Our community must monitor this trend and make plans to ensure that access to refueling infrastructure is not a barrier to adoption of hydrogen vehicles.
CITY OF KITCHENER
As of 2022, the City of Kitchener has been in the process of supporting the University of Waterloo’s project work under the Environment and Climate Change Canada’s Support to Canadian Think Tanks and Academic Institutions funding stream. The project title is “Quantifying the benefits and risks of using hydrogen for sectoral integration in Canadian municipalities towards net-zero emissions.”
As part of the municipal sector, the City of Kitchener's involvement will allow the researchers to expand the study to include studying hydrogen’s role in the energy transition in both municipal transportation and public buildings focus areas.
The City of Kitchener has additionally collaborated with an UW Chemical Engineering capstone project team regarding a project called Renewable Hydrogen Generation and Distribution Infrastructure in Kitchener. For 2022-2023 the City of Kitchener set a goal to identify a method of implementing hydrogen (H2) as an energy vector in the City of Kitchener to help meet the city's emission reduction targets.
SUSTAINABLE WATERLOO REGION
Sustainable Waterloo Region (SWR) is pursuing funding for fleet conversation support and public infrastructure strategy creation. This project will include preliminary exploration of hydrogen trends and infrastructure with the support of researchers at the University of Waterloo if funding is granted.