Alberta Innovates and Emissions Reduction Alberta (ERA) are investing a combined $57 million into 28 hydrogen power projects.
Alberta Innovates is investing $22.5 million for 20 early-stage projects through its Hydrogen Centre of Excellence in partnership with Natural Resources Canada. ERA is using funding from Alberta’s Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction program to commit $34.5 million for eight late-stage projects through its Accelerating Hydrogen Challenge.
“Hydrogen has the potential to transform global energy markets and to create trillions of dollars of economic activity.”
The funded projects include some tech-focused initiatives, and all cover one or more areas of the hydrogen economy, including hydrogen production, storage, transmission, distribution, and usage. According to a statement from Alberta Innovates, the recipients of its funding have two years to complete their work, while recipients of ERA funding have three years.
Among the funding recipients are a few Canadian tech startups. Cleantech startup Ayrton Energy is receiving $1.7 million in funding from Alberta Innovates to develop a liquid organic hydrogen carrier for hydrogen storage and transportation.
Burnaby, BC-based cleantech startup Ekona Power is receiving $1 million in funding from Alberta Innovates. Founded in 2017 by venture capital firm Evok Innovations and cleantech startup incubator Innovative Breakthrough Energy Technology, Ekona will use the funding to pilot its methane pyrolysis reactor, which it says converts natural gas into hydrogen and solid carbon. The startup closed $79 million CAD in Series A financing in 2022.
Calgary-based Gradient Thermal, which designs and manufactures high-performance heating products that it claims are extremely energy efficient and simple to install, is receiving $1.9 million from Alberta Innovates for its flagship product, syncFURNACE, which it claims is a zero-greenhouse-gas heating system for homeowners and small industrial sites.
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Certarus, a Calgary-based energy startup founded in 2014, is receiving $1.2 million in funding from ERA to scale up and deploy hydrogen storage, compression, and blending equipment at an existing compressed natural gas hub. Certarus was named one of top Canada’s tech startups by LinkedIn in 2019.
Alberta, whose economy has long been dominated by oil and gas, has made hydrogen power a key focus of investment in recent years. The provincial government hopes to integrate clean hydrogen at-scale into the province’s domestic energy system for use in transportation, industry, heat, power generation, and renewable energy storage by 2030.
“Hydrogen has the potential to transform global energy markets and to create trillions of dollars of economic activity,” Nate Glubish, Alberta’s minister of technology and innovation, said in a statement. “Alberta’s government is committed to investing in new technologies to develop a hydrogen market and to ensure that Alberta is the hydrogen capital of Canada.”
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