With a mission to inform, empower, celebrate and advocate for British Columbia's current and aspiring business leaders, BCBusiness go behind the headlines and bring readers face to face with the key issues and people driving business in B.C.
Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1254353
14 INVEST in BC 2 0 2 0 Official Publication of the BC Economic Development Association. In special partnership with BCBusiness. AFTER CARBON T he future of Canada's energy sector is clean, and British Columbia is at the forefront. The province is poised to help propel the expected exponential growth in clean energy and cleantech, which includes not only energy-related technology such as renewable fuels, power generation and storage but also industrial efficiencies, carbon capture and green building. "B.C. is world-leading," says Jeanette Jackson, CEO of Foresight Cleantech Accelerator Centre. "We have the technology that can perhaps take a huge market share in what is estimated to be a multitrillion-dollar cleantech sector over the next five to 10 years globally." There are myriad reasons to explain B.C.'s position as a standout player. For one, the province has long derived almost all its electrical power from renewable sources and developed considerable expertise there. For another, the province-wide carbon tax, in place more than a decade, is a supportive policy for encouraging investment in emissions-reducing technology. B.C.'s location, including access to ports and proximity to Asia and the United States, is another driver; so is cutting-edge research. B.C. has nearly 300 cleantech companies, according to Jackson, and has seen more than 25 percent growth in related jobs over the last two years. The province first left a footprint in cleantech 40 years ago with the founding of Ballard Research, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: POWER TECH LABS; GENERAL FUSION; BC FERRIES; HARBOUR AIR SEAPLANES A fast-growing cohort of B.C. companies is pointing the way to a cleantech-driven economy BY GAIL JOHNSON