The energy election?

TECH

Summit closes $36.5M for low-impact lithium

What happened: Calgary’s Summit Nanotech raised $36.5 million for their direct lithium extraction technology led by Evok Innovations and BDC Capital's Climate Tech Fund.

The tech: Summit's denaLi technology extracts lithium from brine water and returns the rest of the brine back to the source, minimizing the environmental impact. 

The process begins by separating lithium ions from the brine using a specialized nanomaterial that binds to lithium while leaving other elements behind. The lithium is then concentrated to be used in lithium-ion batteries.

Why it matters: Most batteries on the market today are made with lithium, and electric vehicles and battery energy storage are increasing demand. But traditional ways of extracting lithium have a large environmental footprint.

Mining lithium from hard rock requires processing huge amounts of rock (about 6-7% of which is lithium) and a lot of energy to separate the lithium from other minerals. Conventional brine extraction requires huge evaporation ponds, and depletes the reservoirs and surrounding ecosystems.

With their nanomaterial, Summit Nanotech is able to produce lithium more efficiently and with a lighter environmental footprint.

What's next: Summit recently commissioned a demonstration plant in Northern Chile, one of the world's largest lithium sources. With this new funding, the company will move from demonstration to commercial-scale production.

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CLIMATE CAPITAL

⛽️ HTEC (Vancouver, BC) secured $49 million from the federal Strategic Innovation Fund to build a hydrogen plant that will convert industrial byproducts into fuel. The plant is part of HTEC’s H2 Gateway program, a network of hydrogen production, refuelling stations and fleets around Vancouver. 

☀️ SolarBank (Toronto, ON) raised up to $27.2 million in equity financing to advance its battery storage and community solar projects.

🏗️ Intelligent City, Giatec Scientific, and others received a total of $33 million from Next Generation Manufacturing Canada’s (NGen) Advanced Manufacturing Homebuilding Challenge. Projects focused on automation, applied robotics, lowering carbon footprints, and increasing productivity.

🌊 Solid Carbon (Victoria, BC) received $24 million from the Canadian government to enhance its offshore carbon dioxide removal project utilizing ocean floor basalt, aiming to effectively mineralize and store CO2 in the sub-seafloor.

MILESTONES & PRODUCT

💧 Permalution successfully deployed their fog collection technology in the Middle East, offering an alternative to desalination and enabling desert agriculture and restoring ecosystems.

🏅 EarthDaily, Dirrt, and Spare were named to Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies list.

🔋 Electra Battery Materials secured a commitment from the federal government to provide the remaining $20 million needed to complete its cobalt refinery in Northern Ontario. Electra landed a $20M investment from the U.S. Department of Defence last year, but struggled to put together the remaining financing. The deal isn’t binding yet.

🤝 The Calgary Region Hydrogen Hub opened to accelerate the city’s hydrogen ecosystem, aggregating demand to create scale and connect industry players. The hub is funded in part by the federal government and will be managed by the Transition Accelerator. 

NEWS

Energy, major projects take centre stage

Major projects and climate policy are taking centre stage in the federal election.

What happened: The Liberal and Conservative leaders are both promising to speed up major projects and move more energy across Canada as the parties ramp up for an election on April 28th.

• PM Carney met with premiers last week to talk about opening energy corridors across the country, and adopting a “one project, one review” approach for major projects

• Poilievre pledged "shovel-ready zones" for resource projects, including reviving a $14-billion Quebec LNG facility, and would remove the industrial carbon price

• Oil and gas execs also weighed in, hoping to leverage the U.S. threat to declare an "energy crisis", streamline project approvals, and scrap the industrial carbon tax.

Why it matters: The escalating trade war with the U.S. is putting pressure on politicians to come forward with plans to both protect and grow Canada’s economy. 

That includes critical minerals and clean energy projects critical to the energy transition and economic growth (hello energy abundance), but also doubling down on the status quo with new oil and gas pipelines that would have been non-starters before.

Yes, but: The U.S may be abandoning its climate efforts, but other markets aren’t.

• The EU has emissions limits for oil and gas imports and plans to introduce a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism that would add a fee for high-carbon products, limiting market access.

• Global oil and gas demand could peak by 2030 and then decline, years before new pipelines would actually be built.

• Backlogs for gas turbines could accelerate the switch to clean energy, skipping over natural gas as a “bridge” fuel in the energy transition.

The parties will need to propose pathways to diversified markets and economic growth, without sacrificing long-term competitiveness or climate progress.

IN THE NEWS

🔍️ Li-Cycle purchase under review: Industry Minister Anita Anand will review Glencore's proposal to buy battery recycling startup Li-Cycle. The deal hasn’t yet been approved by Li-Cycle’s board, but the feds have been upping the scrutiny on foreign involvement in critical minerals. [The Logic]

🌲 Forest carbon accounting lacking: It’s not clear how much carbon is stored in B.C.’s immense forests according to the province’s auditor general. The province doesn’t have a defined methodology for calculating the carbon benefit of forests, and isn’t using that data to inform how much timber can be harvested. [CBC]

🔌 Ontario maps grid capacity for EVs: Toronto Hydro launched a new interactive grid capacity map to help EV charging providers plan their projects. The map is part of an Ontario Energy Board initiative for all electricity distributors. Access to the data will help charging providers plan better, speeding up deployments. [Electric Autonomy]

📉 B.C.’s climate plan is under-delivering: Emissions in B.C. are still above 2007 levels despite the province’s $3.5B CleanBC program. CleanBC aimed to cut emissions by 16% by 2025, but population growth and policy changes resulted in significantly less progress. It’s a major challenge in setting climate goals - if you miss, the whole effort can be called into question. [The Narwhal]

💰️ Alberta wants taxpayers to backstop oil well cleanup: A government panel is proposing new tools to deal with Alberta’s huge backlog of aging oil wells. Recommendations include creating special-purpose companies to buy and clean up old wells and an insurance fund paid into by industry but guaranteed by taxpayers, shifting financial responsibility from the industry to the public. [Globe & Mail]

BIG PICTURE

BYD can now charge 400 km of range in just 5 minutes

The UK opened a “sandbox” to fast-track cultivated meat approvals

Trump uses emergency powers to boost critical minerals

The ocean has never been warmer according to a State of the Global Climate Report

SBTi adds flexibility for carbon removal to new corporate net-zero standard

Nvidia wants to solve AI’s energy problem with … AI

The EU earmarks €100 billion for climate initiatives

Longer battery life-spans are slowing recycling demand for Norway’s Hydrovolt

Al Gore’s Just Climate fund closed $175M for nature-based solutions

COMMUNITY

🚀 Earth Tech: 2050 & Adapt: Foresight is accepting applications for their Earth Tech: 2050 and Earth Tech: Adapt programs. Earth Tech provides mentorship, industry connections, and funding support. Apply now.

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

➡️ Discover more climate events.

💻️ Growcer is hiring a Marketing Director to establish the company as a leader in the local and sustainable food resiliency movement and grow revenue.

➡️ Find more open roles.