Ambitious Alberta Blazes Clean-Tech Trail in 2024

Alberta has long been recognized for its significant involvement in the fossil fuel sector, famous for its vast oil sands.

Increasingly, the province is also a hotbed for innovation in clean energy, especially hydrogen, as well as wind and solar.

This year alone saw many local upstarts advance tech, commercialize product, win awards, and raise capital.

Below, we reflect on some of Alberta’s clean-tech highlights of 2024.

The Alberta Cleantech Awards

Foresight Canada announced the winners of the second annual Alberta Cleantech Awards in late May.

“Alberta is home to some of Canada’s most talented and passionate cleantech innovators, ecosystem supporters, and champions,” stated Jeanette Jackson, CEO of Foresight Canada, at the time.

Calgary’s Litus received the Venture of the Year honors, an award presented to the cleantech venture best positioned to take a leadership role on the global innovation stage.

Born in 2019, Litus has developed nanotechnology that harvests lithium directly from aqueous sources with minimal disruption to the environment.

Other winners of the 2024 Alberta Cleantech Awards included Prairies Economic Development Canada as Fund of the Year; ECO Canada as Ecosystem Supporter of the Year; and ​MAGNA Engineering Services as Adopter of the Year.

The Global Cleantech 100

Thirteen Canadian companies were named to this year’s Global Cleantech 100 list, the 15th edition.

While the West Coast stood out with seven B.C. companies getting the nod, Alberta was also represented on the Top 100 list with three Calgary-based cleantech leaders acknowledged.

Carbon Upcycling is a waste and carbon utilization firm unlocking a new frontier of circular materials. The company has developed technology for sequestering CO2 gas into a solid form within concretes, plastics and coatings.

Eavor is a geothermal technology based energy company led by a team dedicated to creating a clean, reliable and affordable energy future on a global scale.

Summit Nanotech is evolving today’s lithium mines by extracting more high-purity lithium from natural resources faster and more sustainably to support the global electric vehicle demand.

The Cleantech 50 to Watch

In October, the Cleantech Group revealed its latest annual Cleantech 50 to Watch list, showcasing companies at the forefront of solving key environmental challenges. This annual list serves as a go-to resource for spotting early-stage ventures poised to disrupt the industry, with Canadian companies making a significant impact this year.

Among the featured Canadian innovators were two companies from Calgary: Ayrton Energy and Litus.

Ayrton Energy is breaking new ground in liquid organic hydrogen carrier technology. The company recently secured USD $6.8 million in seed funding, led by Clean Energy Ventures and BDC Capital.

Founded by mechanical engineer Natasha Kostenuk and chemist Dr. Brandy Kinkead, Ayrton’s technology enables hydrogen storage and transport at room temperature, removing the need for expensive cryogenic or high-pressure systems.

The Region’s Most Investible Firms

Cleantech investment in Canada held steady in 2023, with $1.1B invested.

In November the Foresight 50 recognized “investable” ventures from across Canada and a variety of sectors including green housing, emissions reduction, and food security.

This year’s list included five companies that call Calgary home. These firms were Ayrton, Drishya AI Labs, Ionic Solutions, Litus, and Sustainable Projects Group.

Drishya makes AI-powered digital twins, enabling up to 45% emissions reductions.

Ionic’s desalination technology, called Capacitive Electrodialysis Reversal, reduces the power required to remove dissolved minerals from all kinds of water—converting up to 95% of drawn saline water into freshwater.

Sustainable Projects provides optimized capital deployment strategies enabling actionable decarbonization at lower cost.