Canada urged to take "systems approach" and boost funding for energy S&T

Canada's governments and industry must boost their funding of energy R&D and utilize a comprehensive systems approach to support energy innovation and the linkages between technology areas, says a major report on sustainable energy S&T. The report's authors warn that, without a long-term public-private commitment to boost energy innovation, Canada risks squandering its natural advantage in traditional energy sources and abdicating any leadership position in the development of alternative energy sources.

Entitled Power Connections: Priorities and Directions in Energy Science and Technology in Canada, the report was produced by the National Advisory Panel on Sustainable Energy Science and Technology, chaired by Dr Angus Bruneau. The Panel was convened at the behest of the previous Liberal government in Budget 2005, as part of a larger initiative to develop a national energy S&T strategy (see sidebar below). The change in government delayed the release of the report, which was effectively complete last February.

The Bruneau report contains 16 recommendations on the funding of energy S&T and proposed delivery mechanisms (see chart). If adopted and implemented, it asserts that Canada "will be well positioned to identify key opportunities and work collectively to address them, thereby realizing our full potential".

"Canada's abundance of resources and our ability to exploit them has created a sense of comfort that will not persist into the future. We can't continue doing just the easy things," says Bruneau, former president and CEO of Newfoundland Power, former chair of Fortis Inc and Memorial Univ's founding dean of engineering. "We can move the country into a position of real leadership but we can't fix this in 10 years. The critical thing is investment in people."

The federal government currently spends about $250 million on energy R&D — 60% less than what was spent back in 1983 (using constant 1997 dollars). The provinces, combined, spend a paltry $50 million, despite receiving enormous sums from energy-derived royalties.

Industry fares little better, devoting just 0.75% of revenue towards R&D. The Report recommends increasing that ratio to 1.5% by 2016 and eventually matching the current Canadian industrial average of 3.8%.

GREATER COORDINATION ENCOURAGED

Bruneau says it isn't just the amount but the way in which it is allocated that is critical.He says the Panel agreed that a systems approach to energy S&T is essential to bring all the funding players and technologies into play. "At each step (of technology development) there's a new funding source. We need coordination to control all of the steps," he says. "Canada has the potential to become an energy superpower but that is not a description we should give ourselves. We've got a lot of work to do to demonstrate we have our own house in order. Right now we fall so short of what we should be doing that I'm embarrassed by it."

For a copy of the Bruneau report go to www.nrcan.gc.ca/eps/oerd-brde/report-rapport/toc_e.htm.

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