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With the longest coastlines in the world, Canada has abundant opportunities to utilize the ocean’s resources. As a result, the Government, working with industry groups like the Oceans Supercluster and Marine Renewables Canada, have developed programs to ensure Canadian businesses are leaders on the global stage when it comes to the marine industry. Here, we discuss how today’s marine energy projects create fresh opportunities for businesses throughout the country.
Canada’s Ocean Supercluster and Ocean Aware
Canada’s Ocean Supercluster, part of the country’s Global Innovation Clusters (formerly known as the Innovation Superclusters Initiative), connects startups and established organizations across various marine sectors to create new partnerships and develop collaborative programs. Through this national consortium, businesses can create and commercialize universal ocean solutions to enhance Canada’s place as a leader in the ocean industry. To date, they’ve provided more than $330 million in project value commitments to help support projects across the country. One initiative, the Ocean Aware project, leads to numerous growth opportunities for Canadian companies.
The Ocean Aware program is a groundbreaking collaboration between the aquaculture, energy, fisheries, shipping, and ocean technology industries. The main goal is to examine fish health, fish movement, and the surrounding environment to enable more sustainable ocean growth practices. Another objective of the project is to disrupt global competition and make Canadian businesses leaders in their industry, effectively boosting the economy and expanding job opportunities.
Marine Renewables Canada
Marine Renewables Canada is the national association for a variety of sustainable energy sources, including river current, tidal, and wave energy. The organization seeks to advance the Canadian marine renewable energy industry in the global market. The association has recently made efforts to include offshore wind energy in its mandate, expressing its dedication to business growth across the country. Offshore wind projects share a substantial overlap with tidal and wave energy in the operating environment, supply chain process, and regulatory challenges. Marine Renewables Canada acknowledges these similarities and uses them to advance the influence of the offshore wind sector on Canada’s low-carbon future. As the global offshore wind energy industry is projected to increase by over 650% by 2030, the organization’s work with this energy source fosters growth opportunities for Canadian enterprises.
Working together with the Government, they created the Canadian Marine Renewables Technology Roadmap, which is a development strategy for supporting the sector over the long term. Recognizing shared challenges across the industry, the Roadmap aims to address those challenges, allowing businesses to accelerate their technological advancements.
The Ocean Tracking Network
The Ocean Tracking Network (OTN) places premium ocean monitoring equipment and autonomous marine gliders in central locations across the globe to measure environmental changes. They also track the movements and survival rate for over 245 endangered and commercially relevant species. This collective data helps the organization advocate for conservation projects and sustainable development policies, aid with environmental impact testing, and evaluate overall ocean health.
The OTN recently received $13.4 million in ocean grants from the Canada Foundation for Innovation’s (CFI) Major Sciences Initiative (MSI) Fund, which supports the cutting-edge work of Canada’s most complex research facilities. With this capital, the OTN can support Canadian technology companies that manufacture their equipment and help them use their marine resources properly. In turn, these businesses can expand sustainably.
Finance Your Marine Renewable Energy Solutions with Easly
Support throughout Canada’s ocean industries helps Canadian businesses flourish. Many of these businesses are undertaking intensive research and development to innovate in the space, and that R&D work qualifies them for SR&ED tax credits. Those credits provide a hefty refund after tax time, but many of these companies could accelerate their research with more working capital throughout the year.
At Easly, we help Canadian businesses finance their investment tax credits and grants through our online Capital-as-a-Service platform. We make bringing funds forward simple and accessible throughout the year.
Reach out to us today to begin financing the biggest projects for your company that can lead to a more sustainable future.
