Canada’s Ventures to Value Chains: Hydrogen Technology is part of a Foresight initiative leveraging data from technology companies and other key stakeholders to map, categorize, and analyze strategically important industry value chains for Canada in the clean economy.
Challenges and Opportunities in Canada'sHydrogen Sector
Hydrogen has been recognized as a complement to electrification in Canada’s decarbonization toolkit, particularly in applications where direct electrification is technically or economically difficult. As global markets shift to clean energy, Canada’s natural resources, skilled workforce, and clean electricity grid could position the country to play a significant role in emerging hydrogen supply chains. Canada has a long-standing foundation of innovation and leadership in hydrogen technology to build on. The country has been a global pioneer in fuel cell technology for decades, with companies like Ballard Power Systems leading the charge.
However, the hydrogen sector faces a number of significant hurdles that have slowed its expansion. These include the high cost of production, which makes it difficult to compete with traditional fuels, as well as limited demand and an insufficient distribution infrastructure. This has created a self-reinforcing "chicken-and-egg" dilemma, where producers are hesitant to invest in supply without guaranteed demand, while potential users are reluctant to invest in hydrogen technology without a reliable and widespread supply. This feedback loop has proven to be a major obstacle to the sector's growth.
To overcome these barriers, coordinated action is needed from both the public and private sectors. A foundational part of this is mapping the ecosystem. Providing a comprehensive overview of the Canadian hydrogen technology landscape can help both private and public sector decision-makers recognize the right use cases for hydrogen, seize growth opportunities, design effective policies, and build strategic partnerships.
This edition of Foresight’s Ventures to Value Chains (V2VC) initiative aims to provide key insights to our Helix-5™ partners on Canada’s hydrogen technology companies, highlighting areas where we can leverage our strengths, pursue growth, and develop a Canadian hydrogen economy.
This report is available for download. Submit this form for access.
The Value Chain
This visual illustrates the steps in the hydrogen technology value chain, beginning with procuring and extracting raw materials and ending with consumers. It outlines a series of processing steps and the inputs and outputs at each stage. The value chain is divided into three stages: production, storage and distribution, and application and use.
Canada’s Hydrogen Technology Companies
92 companies are assigned to Canada’s hydrogen technology value chain.
- 60% of Canadian companies in the hydrogen value chain lie in the production stage.
- The top three value chain steps with the highest number of companies assigned are transportation (28), electrolysis (22), and other methods of production (21).
Our data and analysis indicate and discuss trends and clustering, areas of strength, and potential opportunities for growth. Some of the key takeaways include:
- British Columbia is strongest in the storage and distribution stage of the value chain.
- Alberta is the strongest in the production stage.
- Ontario has the highest total number of companies in electrolysis, but overall has relatively low representation compared to its population.
- The development of regional hydrogen hubs, designed to co-locate production, distribution, and end-use, is a key trend across the country.
- 21 Canadian companies are working on novel forms of hydrogen production.
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Why Is This Important?
Foresight’s venture acceleration programming emphasizes the importance of understanding your value chain. Knowing where a company fits along the value chain, which companies or technologies come before or after, who the competitors are, and where trends are happening geographically is critical information for ventures, industry, and investors to understand.
This information is also highly important for governments to identify areas of strength, gaps, and opportunities in the innovation landscape, pinpoint areas for targeted support and where targeted R&D and project funding will deliver the greatest return on investment for Canada’s communities and environment.
The web map and analysis report for Canada’s Ventures to Value Chains: Hydrogen Technology are invaluable tools intended to provide the Helix-5™ ecosystem with unique insights into the landscape of Canadian innovation in this space.
Interested in learning more about Canada’s hydrogen technology value chain?
