On the outside, the new house just east of Edmonton in Sherwood Park looks like any other Canadian suburban home.
But inside, the home's state-of-the-art furnace is fueled not by the Alberta norm of natural gas, but by pure hydrogen — making it the first of its kind in Canada.
"We hear from our builders that there is a great deal of interest in low-carbon living," said Brad Armstrong, vice-president for community development with Qualico.Light, storable and energy-dense, hydrogen has garnered a great deal of global interest in recent years because it produces no direct greenhouse gas emissions.
A lot of the excitement around hydrogen's potential has been related to its usefulness in the transportation or industrial sectors. In Alberta, for example, the province's electricity grid is already under pressure due to the rapid phase-out of coal-fired generation. To avoid blackouts during cold snaps and other periods of peak demand, Caldwell said it makes sense to look to hydrogen as a home-heating solution rather than invest in massive expansion of the electricity grid.
Hydrogen home heating has been tried in a handful of other jurisdictions globally, such as the Netherlands, with mixed results. Some people have expressed concerns about the risk of explosion or pipeline leaks, though Caldwell said when done correctly, hydrogen heating is just as safe as natural gas.
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