The C$2.4 billion federal Economic Action Plan includes C$1bn in a Clean Energy Fund’ for technology development and demonstration projects in clean energy, including renewable energy as well as integrated community energy solutions and smart grid technology. The funds are expected to leverage another C$3.5bn in further investments by industry and other levels of government.

“Investments in clean energy technologies are a key part of our approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving the environment,” says Energy Minister Lisa Raitt. “Canada’s Economic Action Plan is investing in 19 innovative projects that will help bring Canada to the forefront of clean energy technology, while creating high-quality jobs for Canadians.”

The Fund has already invested C$466m in three large-scale carbon capture & storage demonstration projects. The latest round of applicants must negotiate formal contribution agreements, but funding is expected to range from C$2.5m to C$20m per project.

The approved clean and renewable energy projects include:

1. A wind and storage demonstration in the Cowessess First Nation in Saskatchewan, to demonstrate a combined wind and storage energy system that could serve as a model for other First Nation’s communities across Canada;
2. An offshore wave energy demonstration on Vancouver Island to show performance, operations and lifecycle of a pre-commercial 100 kW wave energy device in ocean conditions typical of Canada’s west coast;
3. Residential implementation of solar thermal heating systems in Toronto with a major distributor of natural gas, to use different types of solar collectors and storage technologies to verify and compare costs, performance and technical qualities;
4. A tidal energy project in the east coast Bay of Fundy, to validate performance and resilience of tidal current turbines in the Minas Passage - this will be the first Canadian deployment of commercial-scale tidal turbines;
5. An application of geothermal district heating in the northern city of Yellowknife (Northwest Territories) to extract heat from an abandoned mine and provide ground-source heat from an existing aquifer;
6. A 9 MW wind technology research and development park at the Wind Energy Institute of Canada on Prince Edward Island, as the first wind/storage combination on the eastern island;
7. A fish-friendly turbine in existing low-head water-control dams on a river system near Ottawa, to demonstrate three in-stream hydro technologies;
8. A community-based geothermal demonstration in the remote Aco Dene Koe First Nation in the Northwest Territories, to demonstrate how a northern community can use a geothermal resource to generate electricity and heat, and develop a model for other northern and First Nations communities with available geothermal resources;
9. A biomass-based urban central heating demonstration;
10. A utility-scale electricity storage demonstration using Lithium Ion car batteries;
11. An energy management business intelligence platform;
12. Bioenergy optimisation programme demonstration;
13. Waste-heat recovery at compressor stations;
14. Waste anaerobic digestion to electricity demonstration;
15. Heat and power from biomass gasification;
16. Energy storage and Demand Response for near-capacity substation;
17. Interactive Smart Zone demonstration;
18. Biomass and coal co-firing demonstration in coal plants; and
19. A demonstration of electricity load control.