From the Lab to the Export Market
Climate change worries, high oil prices and increasing government support are fuelling soaring rates of investment in the renewable energy and energy efficiency industries, according to a trend analysis from the UN Environment Programme. Growing consumer awareness of renewable energy and energy efficiency - and their longer-term potential for cheaper energy, not just greener energy - is another fundamental driver, the report said.
To that effect, environmentally friendly technologies are being developed to address a myriad of global challenges, including the need for alternate fuel sources, better drinking water treatment, and air and soil quality improvements.
Investment in the cleantech space is indicative of the increased attention to green innovation – venture capital investment alone in this category has been estimated at $5 billion. Therefore, the advancement of these technologies is of significant interest to business and the public at large.
Canada’s environmental sector is tough to quantify, primarily because many companies that develop clean technologies, equipment and services conduct only part of their operations within the sector. It was estimated, in 2004, that the sector’s core comprised 10,000 companies and 250,000 employees doing close to $30 billion worth of business.
By 2007, a study by ECO Canada, the Sector Council for environmental industries, concluded that about 530,400 people were working either full-time or part-time on environmental activities.
Canadian international trade in environmental machinery and equipment to all countries in 2006 totalled $7.3 billion in exports and $10.9 billion in imports, primarily to and from the United States.
Around the world, GLOBE estimates environmental business to form a trillion dollar global market.
Growing demand for cleantech
"Changing public attitudes both in Canada and around the world are creating new demand for environmentally sound solutions in coming years," says Dr. John Wiebe, President and CEO of GLOBE. "And many Canadian environmental companies are helping other Canadian and international businesses to be more environmentally responsible and sustainable."
One such company is Smartsoil Energy of Quebec. Marketing Manager Annie Boulanger’s job centers around explaining the company’s sophisticated landfill gas-to-energy conversion capabilities.
Smartsoil Energy recently completed a successful installation at a landfill in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, where their technology will aid in the collection of gases created by waste decomposition. These gases will be cleaned and fed into a generation station. The end product: 6.4 megawatts of electrical power and 212,000 tons of equivalent carbon credits each year, which can be then sold on the market.
"Everybody wins with this type of installation," says Boulanger. "Not only are harmful gases transformed, but the output converts into electricity, which benefits the entire surrounding community."
The Ciudad Juarez project is one of two that Smartsoil Energy is currently contracted to install in Mexico. A second is scheduled to be put in place near Cancun. And the company is in the advanced stages of negotiations to sell two more. Smartsoil Energy’s new technologies have entered the market at a good time.
Growing public consciousness regarding the planet’s environmental challenges is creating new opportunities for many Canadian players. The company’s sales have already breached the $5 million mark. Created in 2002, the company has seen its employee base grow from 12 last year to more than 25. By 2009 that total is expected to double again.
Canadian CleanTech niches
• Biofuels: Bio-energy and bio-fuels are made through combustion of biological matter found in agricultural, forest, municipal and food procession waste. Demand for these fuels is exploding. The U.S. Energy Policy Act mandated that biofuel consumption in the U.S. rise from 4 billion gallons in 2006 to 7.5 billion gallons by 2012. Canada announced plans to require more renewable content in the Canadian diesel supply by 2012. Early this year, the Alberta Renewable Diesel Demonstration was launched by a public-private organization to test renewable diesel and biodiesel use on the road in a range of cold-weather conditions.
• Waste management: Like Smartsoil, many Canadian companies have developed technologies that can be used to capture gases from landfills for conversion into clean energy. Waste-to-energy initiatives, involving gasification, pyrolysis and plasma technologies have significant potential going forward.
• Ocean energy: Canada’s long coastlines and industry expertise position the country well as a player in this field. The harnessing potential of ocean and tidal water movements are drawing increased interest from industry, academia and government, which have banded together to form the Ocean Renewable Energy Group (OREG).
• Clean coal technology: Coal is a key energy resource for Canada and demand is strong. According to the World Coal Institute, hard coal production has grown from 3,734 metric tonnes (mt) in 1996 to 5,370 mt in 2006. Yet coal use creates vast pollution challenges. As a result, there is substantial incentive to develop processes to reduce or eliminate carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired plants. Several coal-fired electricity producers have formed the Canadian Clean Power Coalition to research, develop and demonstrate commercially viable clean coal technology.
Source: ExportWise, Summer 2008
During the past two years, public attitudes in North America towards green technologies have undergone a sea change.
"Canadians increasingly expect companies to address the environmental impacts of production and are more willing to bear the added costs this could create in the goods they consume," says Karen Mallory, EDC Sector Advisor for Infrastructure & Environment.
"That will lead to new opportunities for companies that can contribute solutions.
Reprinted with the kind permission of the author from ExportWise, Summer 2008 Export Development Canada
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