The Nova Scotia Department of Energy and Innovacorp recently awarded $700,000 CD to support local developers who are working on sustainable energy solutions. Their ‘Smart Energy Innovation Program’ – part of the province’s Electricity Plan – designed a competition whereby two university or college researchers would be awarded $50,000 each to help move smart energy projects from research to commercial application, five early stage companies would receive $20,000 each to develop technology for the energy sector, and a demonstration project would be awarded $500,000 to address renewable energy integration into the electricity grid.
The recipients of the awards are Professor Lukas Swan’s lab at Dalhousie University for energy management in buildings; Professor Ian Hill’s lab and PhD student Sam March for perovskite solar cells; Halifax Hybrid Geothermal Services for a combined ground-and-air-source heat-pump; Minute88’s energy management system for cell towers; NeoThermal Energy Systems’ home thermal energy storage system; and Colibri for developing energy management in buildings.
Green Power Labs and SUNLINX will receive $500,000 to work with Nova Scotia Power and other partners to integrate solar power and energy storage in a single building, controlled by smart software and internet communications.
“Our predictive energy management technology, in combination with onsite generation and storage, will deliver major savings in building energy use and advance sustainable energy solutions for Nova Scotians,” said Alexandre Pavlovski, president and CEO of Green Power Labs Inc. “ We are delighted our project has been selected for the Smart Energy Innovation Program.”
“Nova Scotians said they wanted energy options that are cleaner, more sustainable and affordable, and these projects have the potential to help deliver on those goals,” said Energy Minister Michel Samson. “By putting new ideas into action, we’re building on our reputation as a clean energy leader and creating opportunities in a multi-billion-dollar global industry.”
