CTC #41 - Geothermal heats up

Plus - Funding for emissions management, $350M to transform aviation, Quebec hypes battery readiness, and more!

Hey there,

Welcome to another issue of Climate Tech Canada! Canada’s largest city got a new mayor this week. Not only is Mayor Chow the first to ride a bike to city hall since the 1980s, but they’re also coming in with a strong focus on climate action. Chow’s platform emphasized climate-friendly buildings, expanding bike lanes and transit, and climate adaptation. Maybe we’ll see the mayors of Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa team up to get high speed rail built.

In this week’s issue, Eavor kicked off their Series B raise with a $80M bang for geothermal tech, while Highwood Emissions Management closed its first raise in a $3M Seed round, and waste-to-energy company Solucycle was acquired by Quebec’s economic development fund.

Elsewhere in climate, Canada launched two major climate deliverables in the form of the Sustainable Jobs Act and a National Adaptation Strategy; the feds pump $350M into sustainable aviation; Quebec says they’re ready to deploy $5B to win battery projects; and new modelling shows how net-zero will transform our energy mix. Let’s go!

💰 Funding

⚡️ Eavor (Calgary, AB) secured $80M in an initial close for its Series B round led by Australian oil & gas company OMV and including existing investors. Eavor has developed a closed-loop geothermal energy system that collects and redistributes energy from the earth. Eavor is aiming to raise a total of $145M this year and will focus on deploying its technology in Europe. The Series B comes just six months after a successful demo secured a $10M follow-on investment from bp Ventures.

📊 Highwood Emissions Management (Calgary, AB) closed $3M in seed funding backed by Energy Capital Ventures and Veritec Ventures. Highwood offers emissions management software and services for the oil & gas industry.

⛽️ CHAR Technologies received $1.43M from the federal Clean Fuels Fund for its biofuel and biocarbon technologies.

🛫 Azure Sustainable Fuels received $2.9M from the Manitoba and federal governments to develop a sustainable aviation fuels processing facility.

⚒️ The Mining Innovation Commercialization Accelerator (MICA) Network announced project funding to advance mining efficiency and sustainability. Recipients include:

  • KorrAI (Halifax, NS) - satellite-based mine site monitoring

  • Rockburst Technologies (Vancouver, BC) - low emissions ore pulverization using CO2

  • Riino (Sudbury, ON) - zero emissions monorail hauling

Several B.C. climate tech ventures received funding from the Pacific Economic Development agency, including:

⛽️ Solucycle (Quebec, QC) was acquired by Fonds FTQ Bioénergie, Quebec’s development capital network. The acquisition will help advance Solucycle’s waste-to-biogas in the province.

☀️ Amp Energy (Mississauga, ON), a renewable energy developer, sold it’s U.S. renewables and battery generation business to a consortium including Toronto’s Fiera Infrastructure.

📈 Milestones & Growth

Polystyvert built its first commercial polystyrene recycling plant in Montreal and will be able to recycle the equivalent of 15% of polystyrene buried in the province annually.

LED Roadway Lighting launched a new smart cities product line to help cities adopt new connect sensors across lighting, traffic signals and more.

Reusable packaging companies Suppli and Reusables.com are partnering with Uber Eats in Toronto and Vancouver to offer reusable packaging with participating merchants.

Cafu added five Lion Electric trucks to expand its on-demand EV charging service in Quebec. 

Fuel cell manufacturer Ballard Power Systems will supply mining company Anglo American with hydrogen fuel cell powertrains for heavy duty mining trucks.

Svante (carbon removal) and Nexii Building Solutions (sustainable building systems) were both named to the XB100 list of Top 100 Private Deep Tech Companies.

🔭 Here & there

🌎 In the news

NATIONAL

A plan to make a plan: The feds introduced the long-awaited Sustainable Jobs Act last week after a handful of funding announcements for job training programs. It’s essentially a plan to make a plan though, with an Action Plan to be put in place by 2025. While it doesn’t introduce new supports for the transition in the near term, it does set up some of infrastructure like a Secretariat and an advisory council. Taking it slow may give the government space to address concerns raised by Alberta and other provinces with large oil & gas sectors.

The road ahead: Canada’s Energy Regular released a new report that projects how Canada’s energy use will change by 2050. The report looks at three scenarios - business as usual, hitting net-zero with current commitments, and a more ambitious net-zero. The takeaway: our energy mix is going to look vastly different. In both net-zero scenarios, fossil fuel use drops by 56% to 65%, and hydrogen makes up a much larger portion at 12% of total energy use. 

Figure ES.2: End-use energy use, by fuel, all scenarios

Transforming the skies: Canada announced $350M for the new Initiative for Sustainable Aviation Technology, aimed at “the green industrial transformation” of Canada’s aerospace industry. Funds will be used for collaborative research and project development in alternative propulsion, aircraft architecture and systems, infrastructure and operations, and alternative fuels.

Canada now has a National Adaptation Strategy to drive climate adaptation efforts across the country. The strategy specifically calls out greater collaboration between all levels of government and with Indigenous groups.

Canada’s climate change minister co-authored an open letter calling on the World Bank & IMF to address climate change while supporting developing countries. The op-ed came out during the Paris climate summit, which produced more frustration than change.

Canada will test a Dutch method of speeding up home retrofits. The Greener Neighbourhoods Pilot Program (not as fun as the Dutch Energiesprong) will fund retrofit projects for entire neighbourhoods vs individual buildings. 

The feds announced new projects to make federal government operations more sustainable. The project list includes assessing electric naval ships, building EV chargers at federal sites, and determining the embodied carbon in federal buildings.

Telus will install up to 5,000 EV charging stations across Canada in a partnership with Australian EV charging company Jolt.

Dairy Farmers of Canada is backing a pilot project to support farmers building nature-based carbon capture projects on marginal farmland. 

PROVINCIAL

Quebec’s economy minister is ready to put up $5B to win EV battery projects for the province. The minister says the province has over 100 project proposals worth $34B in the pipeline. 

Fonds de solidarité FTQ is investing $100M in renewable natural gas through a new limited partnership. The partnership has also acquired three Quebec companies:  Solucycle, the Montérégie Biomass Treatment Center (CTBM) and Qarbonex

University of Montreal launched a new ESG institute to develop greater academic rigour around companies’ responsibility to act on climate change. 

Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson was in Alberta last week to meet with newly re-elected Premier Danielle Smith. The “very constructive” (according to Smith) meeting focused on Ottawa’s plan for a net-zero grid and a cap on oil & gas emissions. 

B.C. will add 3,000 GWh/year of utility-grade solar and wind, the first new investment in clean energy in 15 years. The province also announced $140M to the B.C Indigenous Clean Energy Initiative to support Indigenous-led projects.

B.C. will collaborate more closely with the federal government and First Nations leadership on transitioning to a low-carbon economy. The plan identifies six priorities including hydrogen and forestry and is backed by $100M in funding. 

The feds announced funding for B.C.’s ocean economy, including marine energy opportunities on Haida Gwaii and establishing the new Centre for Ocean Applied Sustainable Technologies.

Dalhousie University received $15M from the Carbon to Sea Initiative to study the reversal of ocean acidification and enhancing CO2 uptake.

Ontario’s public sector investor IMCO invested $400M in Swedish battery developer Northvolt to support expansion efforts. Northvolt is reportedly eyeing Ontario as the home of its next battery plant.

PEI will receive $48.7M from the federal government to support switching to clean energy. This includes household oil heating as well as provincial initiatives.

Manitoba will offer new funding streams to support agriculture sustainability,  including reducing agri-food waste, improving water efficiency and building energy efficiency.

📣 What’s going on

📅 Canada’s ZEV Supply Chain Map Launch: Looking to get a better handle on Canada’s zero-emission vehicle sector? Join the virtual launch of Canada’s ZEV Supply Chain Interactive Map which showcases the key players, geographic distribution, and the rapid expansion of the Canadian ZEV supply chain. July 6th, online.

🏆 The Foresight 50: Nominate a company for Foresight’s list of top 50 “most investable” Canadian cleantech ventures. Applications close July 21st.

📌 Jobs

Visit the Climate Tech Canada job board to see open roles working on carbon removal, battery recycling, and EV charging software.

That’s all for this week. Thanks for reading, and if you’re enjoying the newsletter, share it with a friend or colleague!

Justin

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