This week we marked Earth Day. Thinking more about our planet is one reason the clean-tech industry has sprung up. Solar and wind power might come to mind, but this business is about a lot more – and it's become a money magnet.
Those in the business of clean tech call the messy manure part of farming brown gold. Animal manure has long been an energy source; now clean technology is improving the way it's processed.
At Schouten Farms near Richmond, Ont. there is a new $2-million facility about to go on line and start producing power. But electricity is just part of this system.
Bill Kemp's company, Powerbase Systems of Carleton Place, designed the grouping of buildings and a huge circular holding tank that can hold a months worth of manure from 1,200 head of dairy cattle.
The system also handles organic waste from restaurants and grocery stores. Microbes break things down, releasing biogas to drive two generators that produce 500 kilowatts. Heat from the engines also heats the entire farm, and you also get a rich fertilizer for fields and bedding for the cattle. All from the processing of manure.
Rick Schouten, a lifelong famer, says, "It's not new technology. We are from Holland and they have done a form of this for years. It was developed in Germany, and I am just glad to see that it's in Canada and the government is stepping up to the trough to help pay for this green energy."
Schouten was named Ontario's Most Innovative Farmer for the many technologies he uses on the farm. He says this project has been slower and costlier than first thought, but he says it's the cost of being on the leading edge.
He expects to pay off the real expenses in six to eight years, and then he has a 20-year contract to supply hydro.
Ontario is pumping billions into clean energy, and Kemp says we're seeing the real cost of energy.
"The government doesn't own any of this system; the land owner behind the project carries the risk and the government, I think, pays a fair price for what it really costs to produce power from this system. The nice thing about a lot of green energy like solar and wind and this manure operation? The raw material is free."
Water is another clean-tech growth area. Seprotech of Ottawa developed portable water treatment plants that pour out thousands of litres per hour.
The company CEO, Martin Hauschild, says there's a huge opportunity.
"The amount of growth potential in this area of clean tech is just awesome. I think that it can see growth in this sector of over 30 percent a year. There really is no water processing industry in Canada. "
Hauschild says the Ottawa region is good at combining high-tech engineering and clean tech. Enfinity Solar of Ottawa will build North America's largest solar farm, just east of the capital, on 240 acres.
Not everyone likes these projects but lucrative government contracts are luring companies.
Chris Young is General Manager with Enfinity Solar. "The facilities will come, but we are far behind many other parts of the world like Europe in tapping into this green-energy source."
This coming week, Ottawa will host the very first national summit on clean tech to discuss our strengths and how to ramp up the sector.
The city's economic agency was a key organizer. Claude Haw heads OCRI.
"Canada has a very strong position and very good products. The time is right for us, and that is what the summit is about. We need to discuss how to get more aggressive to go after funding, and the big contracts, and realize that there are opportunities around the world. "
Ottawa has over 100 firms currently operating in clean tech.
