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/1505828
SOURCES: HOMESTARS RENO REPORT, IBISWORLD, BC HYDRO G O F I G U R E British Columbia has 1,469 INTERIOR DESIGN BUSINESSES 721 FURNITURE STORES 534 CABINET BUILDING SHOPS 444 MILLWORK SHOPS 265 FLOOR COVERING STORES 229 HOME IMPROVEMENT STORES 46 PAINT MANUFACTURERS At 83%, BCers are the most likely in Canada to say that it's important to choose sustainable renovation materials 69% OF BRITISH COLUMBIANS SAY THEY ARE CONCERNED ABOUT THE IMPACT OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON THEIR HOME 21% are planning renovations specifically to prepare for extreme temperatures CENTRAL A/C 25% DRAFT PROOFING 18% AIR FILTRATION 22% BETTER INSULATION 15% EXTERIOR WALL COVERINGS 15% Home renovation scams were the #1 reported type of fraud in Canada last year 51.2% more reports in 2022 Median loss: $1,900 ( 187.4% yoy) WHEN ASKED ABOUT WHICH ROOM THEY WOULD PICK IF THEY COULD CREATE A "FANTASY" RENO PROJECT, 39% OF BRITISH COLUMBIANS CHOSE A HOME GYM TROPICAL CREATIVE SEPTEMBER 2023 BCBUSINESS.CA 15 A t first glance, the East Vancouver facility of Invinity Energy Sys- tems seems a little empty. High ceilings, nondescript white walls and sturdy grey floors with enough space to com- fortably house 15 cars come together to paint the picture of a warehouse yet to be filled. But this 16,000-square-foot cleantech factory is complete, and it's generating a shocking number of vanadium flow bat- teries ( VFBs): enough to power 3,300 electric vehicles a year. During a factory tour in June, CEO Larry Zulch ex- plained that VFBs are a type of energy storage solution that lo- cal innovators like Invinity are channelling to make renewable power accessible when "the sun isn't shining and the wind isn't blowing." Groups of press and tech enthusiasts toured through the facility's production line and watched demonstrations of how VFBs store energy in a low-maintenance solution that doesn't degrade. Chief technol- ogy officer Andy Klassen sug- gested that the batteries (which come in six-pack units) are rela- tively fire-resistant (or at least pose a benign risk) because the energy is separated and stored in small quantities. These units can be stacked on top of each other in order to scale and meet the needs of any low- carbon energy project. In fact, the company's team of 75 is al- ready shipping the batteries out of Vancouver to meet a growing global demand for lithium-ion battery alternatives. As of July, the company had delivered 35.2 megawatt hours (MWh) of batteries, with an ad- ditional 43.9 MWh in construc- tion. "In the grand scheme of things, it isn't that much, but it's a pretty big number in the world of alternate new battery technology," says Klassen. With a chemical engineering degree from the University of Calgary and over 15 years of experience developing batteries, Klassen helped co-found Avalon Battery in 2013. Avalon merged with U.K.-based RedT in 2020 to cre- ate Invinity. "The fact that we made over 2,500 cell stacks and tested them exactly the same way— that's a real achievement in vanadium flow battery technol- ogy," Klassen adds. On top of its Vancouver hub—which can produce 200 MWh of VFBs a year (a.k.a. M A N U FAC T U R I NG Go with the Flow Vancouver's Invinity Energy Systems is fuelling the future of long-duration energy storage By Rushmila Rahman the aforementioned 3,300 EVs)—Invinity also has offices and facilities in London, San Francisco, Melbourne, Bath- gate in Scotland and Suzhou in China. The company's goal is to supercharge any commercial, industrial or grid-scale site in the world: like providing four VFBs to help Scotland's water supplier decarbonize its water treatment. But even as VFBs are argu- ably the future of long-duration renewable energy, B.C.'s access to hydro hasn't left any space to apply premium batteries like these in the province—yet. Also present that warm af- ternoon in June was Todd Say- ers, deputy executive director of the B.C. Centre for Innova- tion and Clean Energy ( CICE). He addressed the crowd with a surprise: CICE, which is known for supporting cleantech inno- vators with non-dilutive fund- ing, has committed $500,000 toward Invinity's next-genera- tion battery product, Mistral, to fast-track local innovations that can accelerate a transition to net-zero. Klassen credits Vancouver's position as a leader in electro- chemical battery storage to the talent and resources available here. But he's split on whether the province is adequately nurturing decarbonization initiatives: "There is support and we're happy for that sup- port—as we announced today," he said at the press event. "But would we like to see more? Yes, absolutely." £ STORAGE WAR Invinity wants to make renewable energy available without relying on forces like the sun and wind