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For those interested in energy transition, economic diversification and emissions reduction, the new community of Bremner offers intriguing potential
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An intriguing development in energy is finally poised to get underway in the Edmonton region after Strathcona County recently approved a new residential community touted to be fuelled by hydrogen.
For those interested in energy transition, economic diversification and emissions reduction, hydrogen homes could end up being a pretty big deal if the developers can pull it off.
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However, for anyone watching the county council’s hearings on the matter, they could be excused for joking that an entirely different gas, nitrous oxide, might be influencing the proceedings.
NO2 is of course better known as laughing gas, and I kid when I suggest its presence in council chambers. Yet it’s hard to find a good explanation for the high dose of government goofiness that surrounded the process, which saw the project’s rezoning approved, then rejected, then approved again — all in the space of just a few months.
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The community in question is called Bremner, which is a name you should probably get used to as you’ll be hearing it more and more in the coming years. It is a massive swath of land northeast of Sherwood Park pegged to accommodate up to 85,000 residents by the time it is fully built out over the next 40 years or so.
The county had it listed as a potential growth node for a long time but didn’t start getting serious until about a decade ago when regional discussions were ramping up about how to accommodate two million people in the Edmonton area.
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A bunch of planning and consultations followed over the next several years, and companies began assembling land. One of them, Qualico, drew up plans for the first two Bremner neighbourhoods, which were approved by council in 2021.
(Qualico was also working on its partnership with Atco for the hydrogen component, which I’ll discuss momentarily.)
Although rezoning remained as a final regulatory step, it’s more or less bad form for a council to reject an application if it conforms to the community plan they just approved.
However, sometimes these things go sideways, and Bremner has had pretty persistent controversy all the way along. Some critics have bemoaned the loss of good agricultural land, some have worried about county costs for public infrastructure, and some feel the timing is premature.
There has even been pressure from a competing growth area — Colchester, south of Sherwood Park — where some residents want to be prioritized for development ahead of Bremner.
All of these issues again came up during the rezoning hearing in April.
The vote was tight. The three councillors representing rural parts of the county were opposed, as was Mayor Rod Frank.
Nonetheless, the rezoning passed 5-4 on first and second reading. The third and final reading, usually just a formality, was delayed two weeks. That proved pivotal because when the vote was called again, one of the councillors who originally supported the motion — Coun. Lorne Harvey — flipped his vote. That meant the rezoning lost, leaving the entire development and hundreds of millions of dollars in limbo.
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It seems that in the time between votes, Harvey (and maybe others) decided to do more research, largely by talking to more residents and touring the affected area. Among other worries, Harvey said he grew increasingly apprehensive about Strathcona County’s ability to afford Bremner’s public infrastructure, especially since there are other sections of the county also in development.
Unfortunately, while Harvey may have had good intentions in digging deeper, there is a procedural rule that essentially says no more voices can be heard on a council issue once a public hearing is closed.
As such, an entirely new hearing had to be scheduled, which took place July 18. This time, Harvey stuck to his original vote, and the motion passed in what you might call a reversal of a reversal.
“In my mind, I still don’t think it’s the right timing for it. I think another year or two would have been better. But Qualico did follow the right process,” said Harvey, who did seem legitimately torn. “At the end of the day, this was a vote on zoning, and that’s what I voted on.”
In looking at all this, some might say more sprawl isn’t ideal for the Edmonton region right now, even though Bremner is conceived as a fairly high density community.
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However, my main interest is not so much on the county’s growth patterns, but on the potential opportunity to accelerate Alberta’s hydrogen ecosystem.
In that vein, the proponents say there is only one other pure hydrogen community of any scale in the world right now — in the Netherlands — and certainly none in Canada. Somebody has to be first through the door here to determine if and how this can work.
(There are skeptics who believe the hydrogen component was thrown in as a gimmick to help obtain approval for Bremner, so it is now up to Qualico and ATCO to prove them wrong.)
Brad Armstrong, Qualico’s vice-president of community development, told me the plan at this point is to have the first two construction stages, about 300 lots in total, feature pure hydrogen heating and hot water. Hydrogen appliances could also be added depending on supply and cost.
Those initial homes, along with a demonstration house, will be the subject of a study looking at the economics and logistics of delivering hydrogen, along with gaps in government regulations.
If it all works out, the intention is to have all of Bremner built as a hydrogen community, Armstrong said. That, in turn, could serve as the proof of concept for a much broader residential transition, so there is a lot at stake here.
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I plan to write more about hydrogen in coming months, to hopefully explore what substance lies behind government and industry interest.
We’ve seen lots of optimistic prognostications and pilot projects initiated for transportation, industrial uses and more. But there are still considerable questions around how much hydrogen can realistically contribute to net-zero goals, what it will take to develop the necessary capacity and infrastructure, and what the long-term economics look like.
That’s why it’s important to start taking bigger steps to answer those questions, knowing there can be value in being a pioneer. At some point it can’t just be pilot projects, and that’s the hope with something like Bremner.
In that sense — even though it was a bit of a gas to witness — I’m glad the shenanigans in Strathcona County didn’t end with this promising opportunity vanishing into thin air.
kgerein@postmedia.com\
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