Emissions Reduction Alberta (ERA), the provincial public agency responsible for investing in clean technology, has pumped nearly $51 million into more than a dozen projects it says could lower greenhouse gas emissions by more than 100,000 tonnes by 2030.
The news: On Monday, ERA announced it was investing just shy of $51 million in funding to 16 Alberta innovation projects intended to “cut emissions and grow the economy.” Those 16 projects, which are worth an estimated $180 million in prospective value, aim to green Alberta’s traditional resource-based industries, and include oil and gas, agriculture, construction, transportation, waste, electricity generation, mineral, chemical, and fertilizer development, and more. Funded projects include FulcrumAir out of Calgary which develops unmanned drones for use in transmission line installation tasks, as well as Mangrove Lithium for its work replacing emissions-heavy cement ingredients with lower-carbon lithium byproducts.
From the source: According to ERA, the 16 projects, if successful, will account for emissions reductions equivalent to 117,700 tonnes of CO2 by 2030—the equivalent of taking more than 39,000 cars off the road. ERA also reports that the combined projects will create roughly 1,556 person-years of employment, a term used to measure the total amount of labour contributed to a project (which does not mean these projects will create 1,556 individual jobs).
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The context: Funding for the various projects, which includes $5 million for the development of the Brooks Newell Hydrogen Hub and $7 million for a Svante Technologies carbon capture project in Peace River, Alta., comes from Alberta’s industry-funded Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction (TIER) Fund. It adds to more than a billion dollars worth of investment delivered through ERA to 368 projects since 2009.
Final thought: The estimated emissions reductions are entirely dependent on the success of each project going forward and is not guaranteed. In some instances, like the Blackspring Ridge 1 wind project, which received ERA funding to the tune of $10 million, projects have met or exceeded emissions reductions forecasts. Others, like the $1.5 million ERA-funded Rotoliptic project developing specialized oilfield pump technology, have fallen short of initial forecasts.
BetaKit’s Prairies reporting is funded in part by YEGAF, a not-for-profit dedicated to amplifying business stories in Alberta.
Feature image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.