Sent to you by nwallis via Google Reader:
November 28th, 2008 by Amie @ MaRS
mr. bon soo thinks tech in the soo is cool too
I recently visited the Sault Ste. Marie Innovation Centre and Science Enterprise Algoma to check out this small community of tech innovation. Flying into the city, you're immediately greeted by their massive wind farm. Operating since 2006, Brookfield Power's Prince Wind Energy Project comprises 126 wind turbines extending over nearly 20,000 acres, and a total installed capacity of 189 MW. Up until a couple of weeks ago (with the opening of the 199.5 MW Melancthon Grey Wind Project in Shelburne, ON) Prince was the largest project in Canada.
If there are some common themes that link the innovative opportunities in this region, it's the community's support and adoption of new technology opportunities and the absence of NIMBYism.
Renewable Energy
On the renewable energy front, we see this in a number of projects in addition to the wind farm:
- Algoma Steel's 70 MW co-gen plant
- PodGenerating Group's development of a 60 MW solar farm
- EnQuest Power's three tonne-per-day waste-to-energy pilot plant
In EnQuest's case, the Niagara-based company encountered too many obstacles to set up the test plant in that region, and so looked to Sault Ste. Marie. When the key step to commercializing technology like this is proof-of-concept and demonstration, the ability to do so for an early stage venture like EnQuest means everything to their commercial development.
Health IT
We also see examples of a collaborative and tech-friendly community in the health sector and its adoption of health IT solutions. The Group Health Centre's electronic medical records systems was one of Canada's pioneers in this space, building its initial system in 1997. Now the EMRxtra project extends this capability to pharmacists, better integrating the city's circle of care. These capabilities provide a platform for further development of the health informatics sector, and SSMIC, in collaboration with Algoma University, the Waterloo Institute for Health Informatics Research is working on assisting to build that capacity. Toronto-based start-up Infonaut now has a new "Saultellite" office in Sault Ste. Marie in order to better leverage the capacity of the Community Geomatics Centre in further developing its infection control tools, applying GIS to hospital health decision-making.
Forestry Bioproducts
While the gaming and IT sectors continue to develop as newer entities in Sault Ste. Marie, the region's strength in forestry science is not to be discounted. This is evidenced by two companies that I visited, SITTM (aka Forest Bioproducts) and BioForest Technologies. SITTM's Greenstar Biorefinery System is a mobile, fully automated 1M L/yr batch-type biodiesel production unit, where the uniqueness of the system comes from the ability for the end user to cost-effectively and safely produce quality biofuel at a small scale from a variety of feedstocks. With Greenstar, SITTM offers people in remote or rural areas and developing nations a way to independently create clean fuel. BioForest Technologies has developed an insecticide based on a natural chemical, the active ingredient extracted from the seeds of the neem tree, as well as a novel injection system in order to more safely and effectively counter invasive forest pests like emerald ash borer. The revitalization of the area's forestry industry is also reliant upon a new focus on the production of other high-value chemicals from the forest through green chemistry and biorefining, whether those are pharmaceuticals from yew trees, or precursors to bioplastics and biopolymers.
All in all, there's some pretty cool stuff going on out there in the Soo.
Things you can do from here:
- Subscribe to MaRS Blog - Innovation and Commercialization in Canada using Google Reader
- Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites
No comments:
Post a Comment