WATERDOWN, ON — Sixteen clean technology projects from across Canada will receive $58 million in funding to help move innovative technology solutions to the market. The announcement, confirming the decision of the Board of Directors of Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC), was made on Tuesday by the Honourable Lisa Raitt, Minister of Natural Resources, and Vicky Sharpe, SDTC's President and CEO.

"Our Government continues to help bring innovative renewable energy technologies from idea to marketplace," said Minister Raitt. "Investing in these projects will stimulate the growth of a domestic clean energy industry, create high-quality jobs for Canadians and help protect our environment."

"Through SDTC, the Government of Canada is helping cleantech companies convert their new technologies into market-ready products," said SDTC Chairman Juergen Puetter. "When these companies bring their technologies to businesses and consumers, they create jobs, provide Canada a technological edge and contribute to an overall reduction in Canada's greenhouse gas emissions".

These innovative clean technologies involve many of Canada's main economic sectors, including energy use, transportation and waste management. Some highlights of this round include:

• Technologies that will help reduce the environmental impacts of the transportation sector by using renewable energy such as electricity and hydrogen to power vehicles.
• Biomass-related technologies that will add value to Canada's forestry and agricultural industries, furthering the development of a bio-based economy.

These new investments bring SDTC's total portfolio value to over $1.5 billion. SDTC's SD Tech Fund has completed 15 funding rounds, committing $464 million to 183 clean technology projects, and leveraging over $1 billion from project consortia members. These figures include adjustments made to the portfolio.

SDTC's investments to date are creating Canadian green jobs, have leveraged additional private sector investment of nearly $900 million and are expected to deliver an overall reduction of greenhouse gas emissions of between 5 and 12 Megatonnes — the equivalent of taking up to 1.5 million homes off the grid.

"The projects included in this funding round show Canada's great potential and confidence in the cleantech sector," said Vicky Sharpe, SDTC President and CEO. "Companies and countries around the world are looking to buy clean technologies. It's through such promising innovations that Canada can seize the cleantech opportunity and become a technology seller to the world."

The newly funded projects are representative of the investment priorities established in the SD Business Cases, a series of six reports published by SDTC and which provide strategic insights into specific economic sectors (available in the Knowledge Centre section of the SDTC website at www.sdtc.ca). The latest report on industrial freight transportation was released on December 2, 2009. Other sectors previously studied include clean conventional fuels, renewable electricity and commercial buildings.

SDTC will be launching its next call for Statements of Interest (SOI) for the SD Tech Fund on February 24, 2010. Applicants with projects that bring technological solutions which fall under the investment priorities established in the SD Business CasesTM and that address climate change, clean air, clean water and clean soil issues are encouraged to apply. Solutions that address more than one of these issues are of greatest interest.

Detailed information on the 16 projects, including their descriptions, can be found at www.sdtc.ca.

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