Energy Minister Blair Lekstrom announced $6.6. million investment in two clean technology projects this week, an emerging sector that he called one of the "best kept secrets in British Columbia" and one that will work "hand in hand" with its established oil and gas industry.
The investment comes from the province's Innovative Clean Energy Fund, through which it has already committed $60 million to 41 projects across B.C. Lekstrom made this latest funding announcement in Vancouver at the GLOBE conference on energy and the environment, where the province's clean tech industry has figured prominently, even drawing comparisons to the Silicon Valley's high tech boom in the 1970s.
Jonathan Rhone of Nexterra Systems Corp., which will share $4.5 million of the $6.6 million funding with the University of British Columbia and other partners to build a biogas system on the university's campus, said there's a lot of competition for capital in clean tech, "and so much competition for where start-ups are going to be located."
"So what we think we need to do in British Columbia is we need to become a great place to develop and demonstrate technology here at home."
Rhone is one of the brains behind the recently-launched Clean Works B.C., a clean tech marketing and branding exercise backed by what he called an "unholy alliance" of industry interests.
"We absolutely do think the oil and gas sector belongs in our clean tech group," said Rhone, a sentiment that Lekstrom echoed.
Lekstrom said the clean tech sector is "helping the oil and gas industry do things so much better today than they did even a decade ago."
"We need the clean tech sector, we need the fossil fuel industry."
William F. Wescott, managing director for the San Francisco-based consulting company Cleantech Group LLC, described clean technology as "the new kid to the party when everybody's already been eating the cake."
And while government cash is always welcome in clean tech, continued subsidies for the oil and gas sector "is not going help necessarily lift the needle up and go into a different groove," he said.
Earlier this month, the province announced $282 million in subsidies and $200 million in road upgrades to support the oil and gas industry in B.C.
"Minister Lekstrom is in a very interesting position where you know, he on one hand has to regulate and perhaps even promote primary industries and on the other hand, also has to help secondary industries," said Wescott. "And there's inherent tension there."
Colleen Kimmett reports for The Tyee.
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asp
2 years ago
Who needs fossil fuel?
If we are not committed to eliminating 90% of fossil fuel production/consumption, we are committed to run away climate change.
We have to choose one or the other, we can't have it both ways. There is no valid scientific model that shows we can eliminate the worst threats of climate change while keeping fossil fuel production at anywhere near current levels.
Calling your company "Clean Energy" won't make it clean enough.
seth
2 years ago
Chutzpah
So I guess we can cancel all those lucrative IPP contracts, fire up Burrard Thermal and burn clean and green natural gas.
I feel an attack of the warm and fuzzies coming on.
Sask Resident
2 years ago
Subsidies
Except that the gas industry is one of the largest sources of tax income to provincial coffers, so $400 million is recovered back in a couple of months, while the so-called but not really green tech provides almost not taxes to the province and much, much less than the direct subsidies.
As for the comparison to Silicon Valley's high tech boom, Silicon Valley didn't depend on huge government subsidies and remove funding from other areas.
The government must do benefit-cost studies on all the projects they fund, whether a road for the gas industry (which they already do) or for a bio-gas plant (which they don't do). Identify a problem then ask people to provide proposals to solve the problem at the least cost and greatest social and environmental benefits. But government pick those they think will be winners then ask them for a solution.
Sask Resident
2 years ago
asp - Climate Change
No valid scientific model shows the worst threats of climate change. Models shows the potential climate for about one thousand scenarios under various future levels of fossil fuel but the effects of those climates are based on history, the lab and guesses. Since CRU and Mann deny past warming periods, what happened in the past cannot be used. Since what happens in the lab are difficult to translate into the real world, the future is even greater guess work that even the skeptics thought.
But one fact is inescapable. More people in the world will die from disease and starvation if we stop using carbon based fuels without real alternatives (not a lot of electric planes flying!) than will die from climate change in the next 100 years. However, since most of those starving to death are in poor countries, why would the environmental community in the rich countries care? They don't.
Ramona777
2 years ago
From a Former Sask Resident to Another
Did you ever think that those starving to death in poor countries might be victims of companies like Shell, Esso, Union Carbide (remember India, although their deaths came quick), Nestle, Monsanto, GE, GlaxoSmithKline?
How can you even contemplate that a century of spewing carbon into the atmosphere won't do something to our world.
Get a grip.
W Laurier
2 years ago
Interesting
I find it interesting that there are climate change deniers entrenched in both the left and the right.
Both are equally conservative in that they fear change.
YCSTS
2 years ago
Oil & Gas exported for Suckers
Yep, we need Oil & Gas. As valuable Foreign Exchange, sold to American Suckers.
For us, the only sensible path is to conserve Oil & Gas domestically, by replacing it with clean, green Nuclear Energy. Even the Arabs have figured that out. Canadian politicians are stupider than Arab ones.
Kuwait realizes the value of Nuclear Energy to increase Oil & NG Export revenues:
http://www.kuwaittimes.net/read_news.php?newsid=Mjk1NTI5MDU=
Iran has the same idea as did the Shah:
"...In 1974 the Shah announced a target of 23,000 MWe of nuclear capacity to free up oil and gas for export..."
UAE awards contract for 5.6 GW of Nuclear to Korea, to replace Oil & Gas for power & desalination purposes:
http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKLDE5BQ05O20091227
Other than exports, the #1 priority use of NG is to supply peaking & standby power generation, and to supply the very high winter peak heating energy needed in Canada.
The #2 priority use of NG should be to replace Oil – much more valuable exported - by converting it to Methanol/DME and using it as a transportation fuel.
Also of course as feedstock for the chemical Energy.
It is INCREDIBLE, that in one breath, greenies are willing to spend huge amounts of capital, like $400 per kwh, and $2k per kw for energy storage (like batteries or pumped hydro) and in the next breath want to throw away our already cheap NG Chemical Energy storage on baseload power generation - which can much better be done with Nuclear.
NG supplies are highly limited. Canada will face severe NG shortages if we continue the trend to squander it on baseload power generation.
WE MUST USE NUCLEAR & HYDRO EXCLUSIVELY FOR ALL BASELOAD POWER GENERATION. USE OF NG IS A CRIMINAL ACT that will cause NG prices to explode, shortages to become frequent, and real pain for the consumers WHO ACTUALLY NEED the NG, like homeowners who need NG for the high peak Winter Heating Loads. It is not economical to build high capital cost Nuclear & Hydro capacity just for the brief Winter Heating Peak. And Hydro is lowest in the Winter.
And Nuclear is certainly cheaper than NG for baseload power generation, when you include the enormous subsidies to NG for infrastructure. The Mackenzie Valley pipeline is a prime example. $1120 per kwth or over $2200 per kwel paid by the taxpayer. Add $1500 per kw for the CCGT power plant, plus NG fuel present value cost of at least $4k per kw and you are up to $7.7k per kw. First-Of-A-Kind no-GHG emitting All-Canadian NPP’s $4-6k per kw. Factory produced at about $2k per kw.
asp
2 years ago
Electric Planes
Sask Resident: "More people in the world will die from disease and starvation if we stop using carbon based fuels without real alternatives (not a lot of electric planes flying!)"
Not sure what airplanes have to do with food supply, but ...
People currently starve for economic reasons, they can't afford to buy enough food, not because there are jet planes flying fresh fruits from the south to the north. And climate change will negatively affect poor southern farmers a lot more then us rich northerners.
A lot of the worlds food supply is currently redirected to the wealthy. If we concentrated on feeding people rather than steak houses for the rich, we will go a long way to preventing anyone from not being able to afford to eat.
offended
2 years ago
The Minister
used to be an installer at BC Telephone Company before he got into politics. In other words, he has absolutely no education in anything relating to clean energy. None.
I know him. I can't believe he is allowed to put our province at risk by being the Energy Minister.