The Government of Canada announced on Friday that it is investing nearly $29 million toward advancing cleantech in Canada, including in Red Deer, Alta., and Saskatchewan.
The investment is intended to scale up Canada’s clean energy infrastructure and position the country as a safe investment for low-carbon energy development.
Announced from Markham, Ont. by Tim Hodgson, the minister of energy and natural resources, the investment will fund 12 projects across Canada, with a focus on accelerating the development and deployment of clean energy tech to build out the country’s clean electricity grid, contribute to emissions reduction, and improve reliability for Canadians.
Funding comes through Natural Resources Canada’s (NRC) Energy Innovation Program, which funds research, development, and demonstration projects, and includes $16.9 million for five carbon capture, utilization, and storage projects; $9.2 million for three renewable energy projects; and $2.8 million for four “smart grid regulatory innovation and capacity building projects,” according to NRC.
Of those projects, three are based in the Prairies. That includes $10 million that will go to a Carbon Alpha project in Meadow Lake, Sask. to test new ways to design seismic surveys for carbon capture and storage measurement, as well as more than $4.9 million for Regina’s Petroleum Technology Research Centre. That project will analyze how CO2 plumes move and change in underground rock formations, aiming to lower the risks of geological carbon storage projects.
A third project, based out of Red Deer Polytechnic, is slated to receive just over $1.2 million to demonstrate how solar panels and crops can coexist on farmland.
RELATED: Svante buys Alberta’s Carbon Alpha Corp.
Funding for renewables in Alberta, long considered a leader for clean electricity in Canada, has slowed considerably since the provincial government enacted its moratorium on renewable energy in 2023, according to reporting from Business Renewables Centre-Canada, an organization that tracks investment in the renewable energy sector. While the moratorium officially ended in early 2024, land-use restrictions on agricultural land and buffer zones around “pristine viewscapes” remain, resulting in various project cancellations.
Hodgson said in a statement that the investment was intended to scale up Canada’s clean energy infrastructure and position the country as a safe investment for low-carbon energy development.
“We are investing to provide reliable, affordable, and clean power across the country that will propel our economic growth, protect affordability for Canadian families, and make Canada a low-risk, low-cost, low-carbon energy superpower,” Hodgson said.
BetaKit’s Prairies reporting is funded in part by YEGAF, a not-for-profit dedicated to amplifying business stories in Alberta.
Feature image courtesy Unsplash. Photo by Sungrow EMEA.