Scaling home energy independence

TECH

dcbel closes $79M to bring its home energy hub to the world

Montreal’s dcbel secured a $79.2 million investment led by the Canada Growth Fund to give households more control over their energy supply.

The tech: dcbel’s platform, Ara, integrates different energy resources like residential solar and bi-directional EV charging into a central operating system.

Homeowners can choose to power their home from their solar panels or EV battery rather than the grid, or sell energy back to the grid when demand is higher. This is particularly handy in blackouts, where vehicle-to-home charging allows you to use your EV battery as a backup power source.

The Ara platform also optimizes energy use to be more efficient and participate in demand-response programs offered by utilities, saving money on energy bills.

Why it matters: Electricity grids around the world are facing record levels of demand, and utilities are rolling out programs like on-peak pricing to curb demand while also building more generation capacity.

Ontario expects demand to grow 75% by 2050 and launched a $10.9 billion program for demand management efforts like energy efficiency upgrades and installing solar or batteries.

Despite these incentive programs, adoption is a challenge. Users can end up with many different products that don’t speak to each other or need to be managed separately.

By simplifying the user experience and unlocking more value for homeowners, dcbel could help drive up adoption, reduce grid load, and help people save money.

What’s next: The company secured a $52M grant to deploy the Ara platform throughout California last year, and will use this new funding to accelerate its commercial rollout across North America and Europe.

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CLIMATE CAPITAL

🔌 7Gen acquired SF-based EnergizedAI to integrate their EV charger monitoring tech into 7Gen’s end-to-end fleet electrification solution. Energized AI treats EV chargers like patients, monitoring vital signs to assess health and predict issues.

🔋 E3 Lithium (Calgary, AB) received a $4.7 million grant from Canada’s Critical Minerals Infrastructure Fund to develop its Clearwater Project to produce lithium from brine.

⛏️ Frontier Lithium secured support from both the federal and Ontario governments to set up a new lithium conversion plant in Thunder Bay, ON. The funding will cover capital costs of the new facility and will be announced once project conditions are met.

🧪 Natural Products Canada invested $10M in bioeconomy startups, including ALT-PRO Advantage’s pet food made from alternative proteins, Bio Sun’s natural crop protection, and Tersa Earth’s water remediation and metal recovery tech.

MILESTONES & PRODUCT

🏅 Xatoms and Knead Technologies won the SXSW Pitch competition. Xatoms is developing AI and quantum chemistry solution to help clean up polluted waters, while Knead is building a platform for food rescue.

🤝 New Harvest, a non-profit advancing cellular agriculture, launched the Cellular Agriculture Prairies Ecosystem. The project is connecting local agriculture inputs with cellular agriculture innovators and ecosystem partners across the prairies.

NEWS

Canada puts up $304M for nuclear leadership

What happened: Canada is putting up $304 million to develop a modernized version of the Canadian-designed CANDU nuclear reactor called Monark. Engineering firm AtkinsRéalis is leading the project. 

The Monark reactor features a 1,000 MW output capacity, simplified construction, longer operating life and better unit economics. 

The federal government also announced funding for small modular reactor (SMRs) projects and research in Ontario, Alberta and Saskatchewan.

What’s the context: The loan is the first new funding for reactor development since the federal government sold off Atomic Energy of Canada’s reactor business to SNC-Lavalin (now AtkinsRéalis) in 2011. Much of the value chain for CANDU reactor is based in Canada.

Why it matters: Interest in nuclear is growing globally as countries look for clean, base-load energy. At COP 28, more than 20 countries committed to tripling nuclear energy capacity by 2050.

Canada has been promoting its nuclear industry over the past few years to tap into this growing market, signing agreements with the U.S., UK, UAE, and others. 

Yes, but: Government funding is focused on existing, large-scale designs. SMRs are a rapidly emerging market but funding is going towards U.S.-made tech. Both Ontario and Saskatchewan chose GE-Hitachi’s BWRX-300 reactor for their SMR projects.

The bottom line: Canada is well-positioned to be a leader in nuclear technology and deploy the CANDU design around the world. Support for home-grown innovators building small reactor designs could generate even more success stories.

IN THE NEWS

⚡️ Inter-province grid connections could soften tariff impact. U.S. tariffs on Canadian goods and energy imports are prompting calls for more internal electricity trade and grid interconnections. A national grid could allow provinces to tap into relative strengths like hydro or wind energy, keep rates low, and attract industrial investments. 

💰️ Ontario adds 25% surcharge for U.S. exports. It’s part of the province’s response to U.S. tariffs and adds about $10 per MWh to energy destined for New York, Michigan and Minnesota. Premier Doug Ford said other provinces should consider following suit. Meanwhile, more tariffs are prompting call for internal electricity trade and a national grid.

🇨🇦 SDTC funding returns under a new banner. Funding for existing projects is flowing again, while new applications will open in fiscal 2025-2026. The agency is transitioning its programming to the National Research Council after conflict of interest issues were found last year.

💨 Provinces make progress on methane cuts. Alberta, BC and Saskatchewan hit their methane reduction targets ahead of schedule. Strong regulations and better leak detection drove the improvement. Methane makes up 17% of Canada’s emissions and much of it comes from unintended leaks.

🏦 Investors push for financed emissions disclosure. Activist investor group SHARE launched shareholder proposals targeting Scotiabank, CIBC, TD and RBC. The group wants to see the ratio of investments in high vs low-carbon investments. 

☣️ Canada adds PFAS to toxic substance list. It’s not a ban on “forever chemicals”, but starts a process to limit them in the future. A number of startups have sprung up working on ways to treat and remove PFAS in water.

BIG PICTURE

Tariffs could drive up electricity costs in the U.S.

Tesla protests are getting bigger and TSLA takes a beating

New EU packaging regulations take effect to cut waste, increase recycling

China plans to expand its carbon market

Greenhouse gases could make space collisions more likely

Crux launches a new clean energy debt marketplace

COMMUNITY

🚀 Critical Minerals Infrastructure Fund: The government of Canada announced a second call for proposals with up to $500 million in funding available for energy and transportation infrastructure projects. Apply by June 27th.

🗓️ Carbon Credibility: Measuring Real Climate Impacts: Join me in Ottawa for a conversation with climate scientist Alex MacIsaac unpack how we measure the imapct of human activities on the climate. March 27th, Ottawa.

➡️ Discover more climate events.

💻️ Novisto is hiring a Enterprise Account Executive to drive customer adoption of its ESG monitoring platform.

➡️ Find more open roles.