CalgaryHerald.com | Jason Herring
“The 16 projects receiving TIER funds represent a range of sectors, including oil and gas and manufacturing, but also areas such as cement and concrete, forestry and agriculture, and electricity.”
The Alberta government has approved $176 million in funding toward 16 clean-energy projects.
The money comes from the Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction (TIER) fund, said Environment and Parks Minister Jason Nixon. The projects are expected to create about 5,600 jobs and cut nearly seven million tonnes of emissions by 2030.
“It’s building on the significant job creation and emissions reductions that we’ve seen with technology that’s coming out of this important fund,” Nixon said.
Alberta unveiled its TIER program in 2019 as an alternative to the federal government’s carbon tax. Large industrial facilities representing about 60 per cent of Alberta’s greenhouse gas emissions pay into the fund.
The Monday announcement follows a $750-million investment made last year , when the province emptied the TIER fund to boost projects that improve energy efficiency or capture, use or store waste carbon dioxide.
“The fund always continues to compile more compliance payments. Every year, as our large emitters are paying into the fund, we’ll continue to have the opportunity to invest,” Nixon said.
“That was the commitment to industry when we made TIER two years ago, that we would ensure that we were investing on a regular basis to be able to make sure we can see large technology gains to manage the climate change situation in our province.”
Investments are also coming from Ottawa’s Low Carbon Economy Leadership Fund and Emissions Reduction Alberta, as well as industry.
The 16 projects receiving TIER funds represent a range of sectors, including oil and gas and manufacturing, but also areas such as cement and concrete, forestry and agriculture, and electricity.
The previously announced Canadian Pacific Railway Hydrogen Locomotive Program is among projects receiving funding, an initiative that company has said is a step toward developing trains that produce zero emissions. The locomotives will use hydrogen fuel cells for power, emitting only water vapour.
Elsewhere, an investment into the Calgary Aggregate Recycling company is slated to build what the province said was Canada’s first soil reuse facility. That project will take contaminated soil from construction sites and process it into stone and sand products.
“There’s quite a variety, all focused on significant GHG emissions and at the same time creating jobs,” Nixon said.
Canada’s climate policy and natural resources industry are currently in the spotlight as the country participates in the global COP26 climate conference, which began in Glasgow on Sunday.