Marine Renewables Canada Society has been awarded $1 million by the federal government to help develop international standards for renewable marine energy production.
The Nanaimo-based society’s work is among 55 projects across the country selected by Natural Resources Canada’s ecoEnergy Innovation Initiative to help bring innovative, clean technologies from the conceptual stage to pre-commercial testing. The funding was announced May 3.
Marine Renewables Canada is focused on maintaining and enhancing Canada’s participation in developing international standards and technical specifications for renewable marine energy conversion systems, such as tidal-generated electricity.
“We’ve actually had a team of experts from across the country who have been working on standards development,” said Chris Campbell, society executive director. “We’ve been working on these things for the emerging marine energy industry for about three, maybe four, years. Canada actually started up and chaired the international committee at the beginning.”
Certifications of minimum safety standards, such as those from the Canadian Standards Association or Underwriters Laboratories of Canada are some of what come out of the standards development process.
About 25 people across Canada are working on the project including several from B.C. companies and research organizations.
“All of these people are volunteering their time, so this $1 million allows us to reimburse them for their hard costs of travel because a lot of them are part of national and international working groups,” Campbell said.
He said several marine energy projects are in the works around Vancouver Island as well as wind and other alternative energy programs, but development and deployment is slow because of lower demand for power in the U.S. and large hydroelectric projects already existing or under development in B.C. and elsewhere.
“We’re a hugely rich country in energy and, in the electricity world, we’re extremely rich in renewables,” Campbell said. “This is a long-term prospect for B.C. and it’s pretty hard to mobilize the first steps when you have so many other opportunities on your doorstep.”
