British Columbia’s government is investing more than $30 million in a bid to support regional industry projects that aim to grow the area’s clean economy.
The province’s CleanBC Industry Fund helps local companies adopt cleaner technologies, supporting transitions to electrification and net-zero operations at regional facilities.
Since 2019, the fund has committed almost $400 million to nearly 200 projects throughout the province.
“We’re helping B.C. industries accelerate decarbonization and lead in the global shift to clean energy,” says Adrian Dix, the province’s Minister of Energy and Climate Solutions. “These consistent and focused investments protect good jobs today, while opening the door to new opportunities in tomorrow’s economy.”
For example, Creative Energy will investigate the potential for recovering waste heat from a data centre in downtown Vancouver. And in the Kootenays, Teck Resources used support from the fund to pilot the use of biocarbon to partially replace fossil fuels in critical mineral and metal production.
“This project helps us explore cleaner technologies that could shift the way critical minerals and metals are made in B.C.,” stated Matt Parrilla, general manager of Trail operations for Teck. “It supports long-term sustainability for workers and communities that rely on critical mineral and metal production.”
ARC Resources, meanwhile, has electrified all of its major facilities in northeastern B.C. and is evaluating additional opportunities to replace gas-powered engines with electric ones connected to the provincial grid.
“Electrification has played an important role in lowering emissions while supporting the production of efficient and low-cost natural gas,” remarked Armin Jahangiri, chief operating officer of ARC. “The CleanBC Industry Fund enables us to explore electrification solutions that improve efficiency, lower emissions, and show how responsible development and innovation can move forward together.”
Cenovus Energy, at several facilities in the northeast region, will replace conventional pneumatic pumps with solar electric pumps in order to eliminate vented methane emissions from chemical injection systems. And NorthRiver, at its McMahon Gas Plant, will replace sulphur recovery units with a carbon capture and storage system in order to reduce emissions from acid gas processing and combustion, and to lower carbon monoxide and sulphur dioxide air emissions.
CleanBC Industry Fund projects are chosen through a competitive process. Selected projects are funded through milestone-based agreements with performance metrics to ensure emissions reductions are achieved.
Applications for this year’s funding round are now open.