Spotlight on the Energy Transformation

Published on
Michael Cleland / Board Chair - Canadian Energy Research Institute
Tony Van Bommel / Senior Managing Partner, Industrial, Clean and Energy Technology Venture Fund - BDC Capital
Chad Park / Director - Energy Futures Lab
Juli Rohl / Founder - ReGenerate Alberta

The global energy industry is going through a massive shake-up – and Canada’s is no exception. The transition to a low-carbon, distributed and customer-centric future energy system is driven by the need to reduce our carbon footprint, and by the decreasing costs and technological competitiveness of new energy sources.
This Spotlight explores what governments, investors, large energy incumbents, smaller independent producers and energy/clean tech innovators must do to enable and empower Canada’s ongoing transition to the energy sources and business models that will power our future economy.


Key Takeaways & Calls to Action

  1. Federal and provincial governments must increasingly engage and learn from local communities before forming energy policies or implementing energy projects, to ensure that they are the direct beneficiaries of any proposed projects and that they become sources of business opportunity – we need to build a new energy social contract in Canada.
  2. For Canada’s cleantech and energy tech sectors to compete, we need to attract significant capital and technical talent to the space and to devise new business models that, for example, reduce the capital-intensive nature of such projects.
  3. The oil and gas industry can provide the economic capacity and the technological testing ground for the transition to renewable energy.
  4. Small companies will play a key role in enabling the energy transition at a local level since they are more open to innovation and engaging in smaller projects that, combined, have a cumulative effect.
Watch and Read the Experts’ Full Interviews: