Fortescue decides against hydrogen plant plans in Canada

The Australian energy giant has withdrawn its intentions to move ahead with an H2 facility

Fortescue, an energy giant from Australia, has decided against its previous intentions to build a hydrogen plant in Prince George, British Columbia.

The project was cancelled by way of a formal letter

A letter from Fortescue North American CEO and president Andrew Vesey, dated September 26, was addressed to John Antill, project assessment director for the Environmental Assessment Office of the BC government.

Within the letter, Vesey laid out the decision made by Fortescue not to pursue any further work on the Prince George hydrogen plant project and has now formally withdrawn from “Project Coyote” from the environmental assessment process that had already begun.

“Fortescue recently completed an evaluation of our global project portfolio, with an aim to prioritize the projects in locations with favourable green energy policies and affordable and reliable renewable energy,” said Vesey in the letter. “We have focused our energy project portfolio to include a pipeline of commercially viable projects to carry us forward and meet future demand, while acting in the best interests of our shareholders. With that, we have decided to put on hold our Project Coyote in Prince George until we are able to secure more favorable power pricing and availability.”

Both the city and First Nation involved were copied into the hydrogen plant cancellation

The City of Prince George and the Lheidli T’enneh First Nation were both copied into and thanked within the letter.

Project Coyote was expected to be a $2 billion initiative by Andrew Forrest, a billionaire from Australia. It was first announced in September 2023.

At the time, the project was described as one of Canada’s largest green H2 and green ammonia projects.  It would have provided employment for as many as 100 people.

The decline of the project

As promising as the project initially was, by July, it was already starting to look as though things might be coming to a halt.  The announcement came shortly afterward that Fortescue planned to reduce its investments into green hydrogen plant construction in favor of projects with greater economic promise, particularly those in Australia, Brazil, Norway and the United States.