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INVEST in BC 2 0 2 0 15 Official Publication of the BC Economic Development Association. In special partnership with BCBusiness. which a decade later became Ballard Power Systems, a pioneer of hydrogen- powered fuel cell technology. The hydrogen movement continues to gain ground in B.C. today. HTEC, for instance, opened Canada's first publicly accessible retail hydrogen station. The company is also building a central electrolysis production facility, which will support the deployment of more than 1,000 zero-emission fuel cell electric vehicles, or FCEVs. Electrification goes far beyond cars, however, and B.C. is powering the shift. There's the impending arrival of BC Ferries' first hybrid-electric vessels, and Harbour Air Seaplanes has partnered with magniX to build the world's first electric- powered commercial seaplane fleet. Different types of power generation are being explored, too. Burnaby-based General Fusion just last fall received $160 million in venture capital funding to build the world's first fusion power plant. Carbon capture is a major component of cleantech industry that is burgeoning as well. Svante (formerly Inventys) has developed technology that's being piloted in the field in the energy and CLEAN TRANSPORTATION: BC Ferries has commissioned battery-powered hybrid-electric Island Class ferries to service small routes between Vancouver Island and surrounding islands (middle); on December 10, 2019, Harbour Air and magniX made history with the successful inaugural flight of the world's first commercial all-electric aircraft (above) cement manufacturing sectors. At a plant in Squamish, Carbon Engineering is extracting carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and using it to produce a carbon-neutral fuel—the remaining question being whether the process can be done cost-effectively at massive scale. Unique developments are happening on B.C. soil related to solar usage, with industry-leading core competency here. Day4 Energy, which produces photovoltaic (PV) panels for power generation, for instance, is headquartered in Burnaby and has customers across North America and Europe. Water technology companies like Vancouver's Axine Water Technologies and Richmond's Saltworks Technologies, among others, are thriving. "With traditional cleantech, people often think of zero-emissions vehicles or energy with biofuel, but water is used for everything from fabrics to pharmaceuticals, so cleantech related to water only is starting to integrate into so many different market sectors," Jackson says. "B.C. as a market is quite small," Jackson adds, "but our impact and our footprint on cleantech is huge." • ZERO-EMISSION ENERGY: Powertech Labs' hydrogen fuel station in Surrey (left); General Fusion's PI3 plasma injector, part of a planned nuclear fusion reactor prototype under development in Burnaby (right)