The first Clean Energy Summit comes to Burnaby

The Burnaby Board of Trade hosted its first-ever Clean Energy Summit on Thursday, June 15. The event focused on bringing together industry entrepreneurs and businesses to share their projects and showcase Burnaby as a hub for clean energy.

It was sold out, hosting almost 300 people. Tickets were close to $100 to attend, and attendees included industry professionals, academics, students, entrepreneurs, and more.

The event included keynote speakers such as Mayor Mike Hurley, George Heyman, minister of environment and climate change strategy, and Elicia Maine, associate VP of knowledge mobilization and innovation at Simon Fraser University.

In his address, Mayor Hurley highlighted several different Burnaby green initiatives, including the introduction of solar panels at city hall, 200 new EV charging stations across the community, and converting the city’s heavy-duty vehicle fleet to electric.

“We live in an era of great challenge, but this is an opportunity to come together and do something incredible,” he said as he finished his address.

The event also had two panels. The first was the energy production panel, which was moderated by Matthew Klippenstein, executive director at Canadian Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Association.

Panellists included:

• Colin Armstrong - President and CEO at HTEC

• David Bennett - Director of renewable gas and low carbon fuels at FortisBC

• Jacqueline Spray - Customer engagement and sales team leader at BC Hydro

• Erik Kjeang - SFU professor at the School of Mechatronic Systems Engineering

The panel largely focused on the importance of BC investing in hydrogen energy technologies and the need for collaboration throughout the entire energy transition.

The panellists also spoke about the importance of investing in the workforce, with the panellists placing emphasis on investing in educational places, such as BCIT, which can help to train technicians.

“We’re seeing competition and a competitive job market like never been seen before,” said Spray while commenting on why investing in the workforce is so important.

“Our industries are over a hundred years old, and it’s hard to track people who are doing the same thing. People in these trades are very interested in learning new skills,” said Bennett, echoing similar thoughts of the other panellists.

The second panel of the afternoon was the transportation panel, which Jeanette Jackson, CEO of Foresight Canada, moderated.

Panellists included:

• Nicolas Pocard - VP marketing and strategic partnerships at Ballard Power Systems

• Ronan Chester - Director of climate action and sustainability leadership at Vancouver Fraser Port Authority

• Wendy Avis - Director of climate and environment at Vancouver Airport Authority

• Robert Esterer - CEO at Cellcentric Canada

This panel focused largely on the steps that are currently being taken to decrease the emissions of transportation around Metro Vancouver and BC.

Avis spoke in-depth about YVR’s plans to become net zero by 2030, which was a decrease from the previous goals of being net zero by 2050. She spoke about diversifying the airport’s fuel sources and the effects currently being taken to decarbonize aviation.

YVR is currently the only airport in Canada aiming to be net zero by 2030 and is the only airport currently functioning at the top level of sustainability.

“The airport right now is jet fuel, supplied by the airlines, and now we’re looking at potentially three different fuel sources and the potential for YVR to become a fuel source,” she said.

Similar thoughts were shared by Chester, who emphasized that heavy-duty transportation in ports is currently not on track to meet targets, largely due to the vessels utilizing the largest diesel engines on Earth and the challenges of marine fuel being a space that not many people are familiar with.

“The interconnectedness with the global economy is incredible, and we need to think about how we’re decarbonizing our international relations,” said Chester, who is placing emphasis on the need for a global push towards port decarbonization.

The panel closed off with audience questions, and one audience member asked if 2050 was too far away for many climate targets.

“The way to look at it is that the setting of a 2050 target was set in a different mind space. It was a target that was seen as punitive. 2050 was a good target to get everybody interested, and as different industries start to adopt 2050, they see that they’re losing opportunities by waiting,” said Esterer.

The summit closed with comments from Paul Holden, president of the Burnaby Board of Trade.