Australian energy giant Fortescue Ltd. has cancelled plans for a hydrogen generating plant in Prince George.
Andrew Vesey, Fortescue's North America president and CEO, wrote a Sept. 26 letter to project assessment director John Antill, who works for the BC government's Environmental Assessment Office.
In it, Vesey outlines the company's decision to forego any further work on the project and formally withdraws what was called Project Coyote from the environmental assessment process.
"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," he wrote. "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."
The letter was copied to the City of Prince George and Lheidli T'enneh First Nation, both of which Vesey thanks in the letter.
The $2 billion Project Coyote was announced by Australian billionaire Andrew Forrest during a visit to Prince George in September 2023.
Described then as one of the largest green hydrogen and green ammonia projects in Canada, it would have employed up to 100 people.
However, it started looking like things wouldn't proceed back in July, when word broke that Fortescue was planning to scale down its green hydrogen ambitions to focuses on those with better economic viability, particularly green hydrogen projects in Australia, the U.S., Norway and Brazil.
This is a developing story that will be updated.
With files from Mark Nielsen
