Vancouver is “something of a curiosity in the energy transition,” concludes a new report.
The report, “From Strength to Scale: How Metro Vancouver Can Capture Economic Opportunity in the Global Energy Transition,” hails from The Zero Emissions Innovation Centre, a BC-based independent non-profit.
ZEIC’s report suggests that—despite “foundational advantages in clean electricity, years of strong ranking as a cleantech innovator, and extremely talented local implementers”—the region has yet to “fully commit to electrification as an economic strategy or to realize the full potential capitalizing on local successes as an export strategy.”
The result is that the region is “treading water” despite a “vibrant ecosystem of local providers looking for support.”
While the energy transition is described as a “global phenomenon,” the impact actually occurs “at the level of community infrastructure.”
The report does note that more than $3.6 billion in urban electricity and thermal-energy infrastructure is under construction or proposed across Metro Vancouver.
It also suggests that distributed energy resources—such as batteries, solar, and demand-response technologies—could reduce BC’s peak electricity demand by up to 10%.
When it comes to developing urban clean energy, Metro Vancouver has “good bones,” according to the report, including access to reliable clean electricity, investments in new technologies, anchor institutions, and an “innovation-focused policy environment.”
In addition to anchors, there are also a number of “rising stars,” such as Moment Energy and Mangrove Lithium. Moment is a battery storage company delivering local projects while the freshly funded Mangrove recently completed Phase 1 construction for its 1,000 tonne per annum, first-of-a-kind commercial lithium refining facility in Delta.
The report also references Port Coquitlam’s SHARC Energy as well as Vancouver’s Awesense.
Overall, the greater Vancouver region has “all the ingredients” but could do more to connect infrastructure spending with local innovation, procurement, demonstration projects, and export growth, ZEIC suggests, as energy planning and economic currently development remain “too separate.”
The area’s opportunity is to turn “infrastructure investments into a more deliberate economic-development strategy.” The next step is to create clear market signals around electrification and pair together local deployment with global export ambitions, according to the report.
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