Clean50’s Clean Tech Nominees for 2024 – Part 7 of 8
This week featuring Summit Nanotech, SWTCH Energy, Taiga Motors Inc., Tersa Earth Innovations, and Three Sixty Solar Ltd.
Each year the Clean50 Awards attract more worthy nominees than we can possibly include on our list when we release it each fall (this year September 28th), and that’s an incredible shame – because this year we have 60 incredible nominees in the Cleantech and R&D categories alone. It’s great to know that clean tech innovation is alive and well in this country!
But innovation is not enough: Organizations and individual Canadians need to make the conscious choice to support made-in-Canada innovation – and buy Canadian wherever and whenever they can. Because here’s the thing: the incredible sums of money Joe Biden has invested in US based clean tech and the tax advantages he has conferred on clean tech investors means that US based clean tech companies are rich with cash – and they can afford to buy up Canadian competitors, and then take the intellectual property – and the jobs – and the revenues – to the USA. So we’re trying to do our part and show you 60 companies doing amazing stuff – and we hope you’ll do your part – and BUY some of it!
As we go through this process, we’ve been amazed at where some of our clean tech innovation is coming from: It’s not just start ups and university labs. We’re featuring lots of those, for sure – but also a company capturing kelp from the seabed – turning it into compostable plastic, and another recycling abandoned plastic fishing nets into brand new plastic, and a company which has figured out a way to make boats really really slippery. How does that help? you ask… you’ll find out – if you keep reading!
We promise – each of the 8 articles in this series will open your mind to some seriously cool possibilities! Congratulations to all of our nominees!
Summit Nanotech
Clean 50 Nominee Amanda Hall, CEO & Founder
Calgary, AB
What does the product do? Summit Nanotech is a sustainable lithium extraction technology company transforming how the world accesses lithium for electric vehicle batteries and the global energy transition. Using a sorbent and water recovery technology, their patented and sustainable direct lithium extraction technology, denaLiTM, extracts high-quality lithium from salt flat brine using up to 50% less water, producing up to 90% less waste and doubling lithium yield in just one day, compared to the traditional extraction process. Through consistent consultation with local Indigenous communities, denaLiTM will preserve natural resources and ecosystems and optimize operations for lithium producers in Chile and Argentina.
Who should buy it? The technology will be sold to mining companies to extract lithium from salt flats.
SWTCH Energy
Clean 50 Nominee Carter Li, CEO
Toronto, ON
What does the product do? Increasingly, electric vehicle (EV) drivers live in multi-unit residential buildings (MURBs), where they don’t have access to charging. SWTCH is pioneering EV charging solutions in MURBs that maximize existing electrical infrastructure to seamlessly integrate EVs into buildings and the electrical grid. Our SWTCH ControlTM model-predictive control (MPC) platform was built on scheduling optimization algorithms that facilitate dynamic building energy management to improve building charging infrastructure capacity by over 400%. By lowering the cost of ownership for EV drivers residing in MURBs, our technology will improve access to EV charging infrastructure and the overall adoption of EVs in communities across Canada.
Who should buy it? Real estate developers, building operators, and utilities looking for cost-effective and innovative EV charging solutions to help MURB communities make the transition to electric vehicles.
Taiga Motors Inc.
Clean 50 Nominee Samuel Bruneau, CEO & Co-Founder
Lasalle, QC
What does the product do? Taiga is on a mission to electrify powersports with its electric personal watercrafts and snowmobiles without compromising performance. Nomad, our electric snowmobile allows customers to silently explore the wilderness with 1,125 lbs in towing capacity, up to 126 lbs of payload and 170 Nm of torque in drive or reverse. The Orca personal watercraft silently glides through water with instant torque and up to 120kW peak power (160 hp).
Who should buy it? Taiga is currently delivering both its vehicles and has healthy order book from recreational and commercial customers, including national parks, ski-hills, and resorts.
Tersa Earth Innovations
Clean 50 Nominee Vikramaditya Yadav, CEO
Burnaby, BC
What does the product do? TersaClean is flow-based, continuous processing technology for treating mine tailings and acid rock drainage. The process sustainably recovers dissolved metals in their pure form from tailings and subsequently treats the waste water. TersaClean is modular, cheap to manufacture and operate, can be deployed at scale and significantly reduces carbon emissions in comparison to conventional processes for management of tailings.
Who should buy it? TersaClean has been developed for the mining industry and will allow companies to attain their profitability targets and become environmental leaders. TersaClean can improve productivity of Canada’s mining sector by nearly $2 billion and reduce annual GHG emissions by 1 megaton.
Three Sixty Solar Ltd.
Clean 50 Nominee Brian Roth, CEO
Vancouver, BC
What does the product do? Three Sixty Solar’s patent-pending vertical solar towers enable our customers to deploy renewable solar power generation technology on up to 90% less land than conventional solar, while also adding utilities that cannot be included with ground mount solar, such as telecommunications, security, lighting, battery storage, and more.
Who should buy it? Ideal customers are commercial and industrial clients with substantial power needs who have higher value uses for their land than covering it with traditional solar, including agriculture, golf courses, industrial parks, and even residential developers. We help them meet their power demands without sacrificing the land they need to run their businesses.
