Current H2

The Municipality of Shuniah will be hosting a public meeting on Tuesday at 7 p.m. at 420 Leslie Avenue concerning two significant industrial projects.

The first project is a battery facility for energy storage, proposed by Powerbank, which could be built on Mount Baldy Road.

A petition with more than 850 signatures has called for relocating the site of the battery facility, raising concerns about fire hazards, evacuation

The second project is a plant proposed by a company called Current H2. The plant is presented as a “Hydrogen-ready” gas plant, meaning it will operate as a natural gas plant, but is also capable of being used as an H2, or liquid hydrogen plant.

This means the plant will operate as a greenhouse-gas-producing natural gas (methane) energy plant, but will be capable of switching its operation over to hydrogen, a green energy source, at some future date when it is cheaper to source hydrogen fuel.

Current H2’s proposal is facing criticism from Citizens United for a Sustainable Planet, which accuses the gas plant of exaggerating the feasibility of procuring cheap hydrogen for green energy production.

Both proposals will be open to discussion at the public meeting. At present, neither proposal has the endorsement of the municipality.