Government and
clean-tech companies joining forces to promote a multi-billion
industry
Vancouver (February 16,
2010) - A series of clean-tech and energy
announcements during the first week of the Olympic Games in
Vancouver were the opening salvo of a two-year marketing campaign
to promote British Columbia as a world centre of excellence for
renewable energy and environmental technology.
Clean-tech sector executives, the
Independent Power Producers Association of B.C., and the BC
Technology Association are part of a CleanWorks BC collaboration
formed last year as a vehicle to promote British Columbia's clean
technology and services sectors - believed to be the third
largest.
Additional support has been provided by the
province, the Vancouver Economic Development Commission and the
University of B.C.
In announcing the CleanWorks BC Initiative,
Premier Gordon Campbell noted "British Columbia is growing as a
global hub for clean-energy research and investment. As the world
searches for cleaner ways of producing energy, these kinds of
investments help position B.C. to meet that supply and, at the same
time, generate new growth and jobs here in our province." (See
GLOBE-net article "Clean Energy Investments to Power BC's
Future.")
Soon to be released research by the GLOBE
Foundation notes that companies operating in British Columbia's
low-carbon economy reported revenues in excess of $18.3 billion in
2008. The province's green economy contributes roughly 10.2 per
cent of total provincial GDP and accounts for 165,690 direct and
indirect full-time equivalent green jobs (2008) - equivalent to 7.2
per cent of British Columbia's total employment.
CleanWorks representative Jonathan Rhone,
president and CEO of Nexterra Energy, quoted in a Vancouver Sun
article noted B.C. companies are competing in a global market for
investment funds, so an over-arching identity will benefit all of
them. "We realized that all of the sectors within British Columbia
that are working on clean energy, whether it's the universities or
the city, or the clean-tech community or the power generators, need
to collaborate on getting the message out," Rhone said.
Three high profile clean-energy projects
were announced this week including a report from venture capital
firm Chrysalix Energy that its most recent energy investment fund
has topped $100 million and will reach $150 million by March
31.
Other projects announced were a 10-year
partnership deal between energy multinational GDF Suez and Pacific
BioEnergy to undertake a $24-million expansion of Pacific's
wood-pellet manufacturing plant in Prince George; and the
University of British Columbia announcement of the world's first
biomass-fuelled heat and energy system using technology developed
by Nexterra Systems in partnership with GE Energy. (See GLOBE-Net article for further
details)
General Electric has been a prominent
sponsor of the 2010 Olympics and used the window of the first week
of the celebrations to announce two clean power deals in the
province.
GE has joined forces with Vancouver-based
Plutonic Power to build the 196-megawatt Toba Montrose hydro
project and the Dokie Wind Project, near Fort St. John in
northeastern B.C. (See GLOBE-Net
article.)
Notes the Globe and Mail, GE is
capitalizing on British Columbia's plans to generate 90 per cent of
its electricity from renewable power by 2016, a goal that will
require massive spending on generating gear, which GE manufactures,
and massive infusions of capital, which GE supplies.
Further clean energy related announcements
are expected over the next two weeks as British Columbia shoots for
gold with the 2010 Games and in the global marketplace for clean
energy and environmental goods and services.