Alberta announced on Wednesday that it is putting $91 million into Emissions Reduction Alberta’s (ERA) Industrial Transformation Challenge. Almost half of that, $41 million, will go to nine challenge participants deploying cost-saving technology in the energy, electricity, construction, and manufacturing sectors.
The $91 million will be funded through the industry-led Technology, Innovation, and Emissions Reduction (TIER) program. Under TIER, organizations with annual carbon emissions of 100,000 tonnes or more pay into the program through carbon pricing. That money is then used to fund investment in cleantech and emissions reduction.
The next iteration of the Industrial Transformation Challenge, will focus on projects that help industry invest in the emerging technologies needed to remain competitive in a shifting global economy.
The TIER program has been used by the provincial government to invest more than $175 million through ERA’s Industrial Transformation Challenge, an annual funding competition designed to accelerate the deployment of technology that reduces emissions in Alberta’s industrial and natural resources sectors, since 2022.
The remaining $50 million announced today will be used to fund the next iteration of the Industrial Transformation Challenge, with a focus on projects that help industry invest in the emerging technologies needed to remain competitive in a shifting global economy.
That number represents a lower level of funding than was made available during the government’s last fiscal year, when the Province invested $69 million across 15 projects, including the nine announced today and six others announced in February.
“The Government of Alberta and ERA are creating a pipeline of commercially ready technologies that can be implemented across the country’s largest industrial and resource sectors,” said Justin Riemer, CEO of Emissions Reduction Alberta. “It creates consistency for innovators, clarity for investors, and a clear path for technologies to move from concept to commercialization.”
Funded projects span a variety of sectors, including smart grid technology at electricity distribution company Fortis Alberta that will shore up reliability for a company that claims to account for nearly 60 percent of Alberta’s electricity distribution.
“This accountability gives us a unique perspective into what Albertans need from the grid today,” Janine Sullivan, president and CEO of Fortis Alberta, said in a statement. “All versions are telling us they want to be true market participants, not just consumers … Our advanced distribution management system (ADMS) project, this partnership with ERA and the Government of Alberta gives us the tools to make that a reality.”
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The ADMS project, which received $7 million in ERA funding, will allow Fortis Alberta’s grid operators to have a “single, holistic view” of their operations, uniting distribution systems under a single platform. Sullivan said the system allows them to optimize grid productivity and manage grid risks, such as those posed by wildfires and other natural disasters, through integrated forecasting technology.
Other funded projects include $10 million to TransAlta to fund hydroelectric power generation and battery storage near the Brazeau Reservoir, $5 million to Edmonton’s Canadian Strategic Missions Corporation to support building the prototype of a nuclear micro-reactor to explore small-scale nuclear energy, and $625,000 to Ashcor Technologies, a subsidiary of ATCO that uses reclaimed coal ash as a cement replacement in concrete.
A full list of funded projects, including the six announced earlier this year, can be found here.
BetaKit’s Prairies reporting is funded in part by YEGAF, a not-for-profit dedicated to amplifying business stories in Alberta.
Feature image courtesy Wikimedia Commons.