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Meet the 10 BESC 2020 cohort of winners

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Climate change is one of the world’s greatest challenges, and we need rapid innovation in every part of the energy system to address it.

To tackle this challenge, in 2015 on the margins of COP21 in Paris, Mission Innovation and Breakthrough Energy were born.

Mission Innovation is a global initiative of 24 countries and the European Commission. Breakthrough Energy is a complementary private sector initiative that includes patient and risk-tolerant investors, global corporations and financial institutions.

The goal? To work hand in hand to commercialize new energy technologies, faster.

So, in 2019, NRCan and Breakthrough Energy co-designed and launched the Breakthrough Energy Solutions Canada (BESC) Program at the Mission Innovation (MI) Ministerial in Vancouver.

And the Business Development Bank of Canada has since joined to enhance this initiative with financing and expert support.

We called on the best and brightest in Canada to bring forward their game-changing ideas in buildings, manufacturing, electricity and transportation with the potential to reduce global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 0.5Gtonnes/year.  

If this technology was unleashed across the world, I really believe it would be a different world we live in.”
Over 100 companies applied. We selected 22 finalists, and, in January 2020, gave them the opportunity to pitch their solutions to an expert jury.

The big questions that we're trying to figure out is how do we scale this up fast enough?”

NRCan's [Breakthrough Energy Solutions Canada] program is the program that we're looking toward to help us … get this technology demonstrated and deployed into the masses.”

The challenges are intense, but so is the ingenuity and boldness of the entrepreneurs and firms who are facing them head on.

Get ready for some breakthroughs.

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