UBC breaks ground on Renewable Energy Hub

Source: · JOURNAL OF COMMERCE · | May 11, 2021

Source: UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA — A rendering shows the future home of the University of British Columbia's Renewable Energy Hub. The hub will be used to test low-carbon energy technology.

VANCOUVER — The University of British Columbia (UBC) will soon be a testing site for hydrogen power.

The school has broken ground on the Renewable Energy Hub, a city-sized block of campus that will be used to test low-carbon hydrogen power.

“Our government’s support for UBC’s Renewable Energy Hub is an example of our commitment to helping communities and organizations reduce their pollution, which in turn helps us reach our CleanBC targets,” said Bruce Ralston, minister of energy, mines and low carbon innovation, in a statement. “Both the production and end use of low-carbon hydrogen on the UBC campus show this technology is not just the future, it’s here today.”

The Renewable Energy Hub will be built at the corner of Wesbrook Mall and Thunderbird Boulevard. The project will include a solar panel system that harnesses the sun’s energy to charge electric vehicles. That same solar power provides energy to a water electrolyzer that produces “green” hydrogen. The hydrogen is then sent to a hydrogen vehicle refuelling station to service light- and heavy-duty fuel cell vehicles.

This technology will also make it possible to explore other hydrogen applications, such as injection into the natural gas grid to decarbonize space heating.