Cleantech trends 2017... Cleantech trends 2017: Growth in Canada
This year was a transformative year for the Canadian cleantech sector as the federal government announced in early April its budget over the next five years for the clean technology industry, beginning in 2017-2018.
According to the federal budget, some of the highlights include:
- $400 million towards developing and demonstrating “new clean technologies that promote sustainable development” that includes climate change, air quality, clean water and clean soil;
- $200 million over the next four years to Natural Resources Canada, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, and Fisheries and Oceans Canada to support clean technology research, development and demonstration and the adoption of clean technology in the natural resource sectors;
- up to $950 million over the next five years going towards clean technology and natural resources including a number of business-led innovation “superclusters” that have potential to accelerate economic growth;
- nearly $1.4 billion in new financing, with $380 million going to equity financing to support clean technology firms, $570 million in capital to support clean technology firms and $450 million in additional project financing .
The growth of cleantech in Canada doesn’t end there, of course. Jean-Francois Nolet, vice president of policy and communications at the Canadian Wind Energy Association (CanWEA) told INN that at the end of 2016, there was a lot of uncertainty in key markets like Ontario and Quebec, but 2017 brought growing opportunities in regions like Alberta and Saskatchewan.
“[This year] was an okay year for [cleantech] but looking forward in 2018 and 2019, it looks quite interesting in Western Canada, mostly in the prairies,” he said.
Nolet also said the electricity factor in Canada is changing a lot, noting that it will change a lot more in the next 5-to-10 years than it did over the last 100 years.
“We see a lot of distributed generation move up solar, for example,” he said. “Storage, batteries, all of that is adding change. It’s a plus for the renewables sector.”
According to an Export Development Canada report called Cleantech Export Stars, a handful of Canadian cleantech companies have shown “amazing potential” in bridging the gap between “domestic and international success in the cleantech industry.”
Its top publicly listed “Cleantech Export Stars” of 2017 include: Hydrogenics (TSX:HYG), a company helping accelerate a global “power shift” for clean technology’s future; and Xebec Adsorption (TSXV:XBC), a provider of gas generation, purification and filtration solutions.
https://investingnews.com/daily/tech-investing/cleantech-investing/cleantech-trends/