New SDTC round in the works…
It’s still a couple of months away, but the next funding round from Sustainable Development Technology Canada will likely be announced the first week of July.
Vicky Sharpe, CEO and president of SDTC, told me in a recent e-mail exchange that she had a “stellar round” of applications and there are a number of clean technology types in the mix. I’m a big fan of this program, as each funding announcement provides me with a wealth of information about emerging Canadian cleantech companies and interesting project proposals. Companies I’ve discovered in the past through this program include plasma waste disposal specialist Pyrogenesis Corp., lighting efficiency company Fifth Light Technology Ltd. and biodiesel innovator Biox Corp.
Sharpe pointed out something quite interesting. She said there’s been much celebration of the $200 million (U.S.) that’s been earmarked for clean technology investments by the public employees pension fund in California (CalPERS), but people seem to overlook the fact that the SDTC program has already allocated and is managing $322 million (Can) worth of cleantech investments, about $89 million of which coming directly from SDTC itself and the rest from the private sector.
“We believe, and are trying to confirm, that this (SDTC fund) is the largest cleantech fund in North America and likely globally,” said wrote.
Tyler Hamilton is senior energy reporter and columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. In addition to this Clean Break blog, Tyler writes a weekly column of the same name that discusses trends, happenings and innovators in the cleantech market. This blog is a personal project started in April 2005. It is not an official blog of the newspaper. Tyler can be reached at tyler@cleanbreak.ca