The British Columbia Cleantech Cluster: The A-to-Z List of Alternative Energy Players

Carmanah Technologies (Victoria, BC). This company has technology that matches up solar power systems with light-emitting diode technology. It makes a solar charging kit for RVs and boats, marine lanterns, and traffic beacons and signs.

Chrysalix Energy (Vancouver, BC). This venture firm, founded in 2001, invests in clean energy startups.

Cloudworks Energy (Vancouver, BC). This company makes electricity generators that are submerged in rivers and streams.

Day4 Energy (Burnaby, BC). This company makes solar photovoltaic modules for homes, businesses, and utilities. It laid off about 95 workers in January, mostly at its Burnaby production facility.

Delta Q Technologies (Burnaby, BC). This firm supplies carmakers with battery chargers and power converters for electric and hybrid vehicles.

Delaware Power Systems (Richmond, BC). This company develops and markets battery technology for electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid electic cars, and energy storage applications.

dPoint Technologies (Vancouver, BC). This company makes heat and humidity exchangers for fuel cells. The company’s technology uses polymer membranes to make smaller, cheaper and more reliable humidifiers for fuel cells. (Editor’s note: This entry was added March 6)

Exro Technologies (West Vancouver, BC). This company is developing generators that use renewable sources like wind, tides, and streams.

Finavera Renewables (Vancouver, BC). The company is developing wind power projects, and also has technology for capturing energy from ocean waves.

Geotility Systems (Kelowna, BC). This company has been in the heating and cooling business for more than 30 years, but turned its attention to geothermal sources in the early 1990s. It says it can design and install geothermal systems anywhere in western Canada and the Pacific Northwest.

General Fusion (Burnaby, BC). This company is developing a patent-pending concept that it calls “magnetized target fusion.” It hopes to demonstrate the new fusion technique is clean, safe, and cost-effective by 2013.

Global HydroFuel Technologies (Richmond, BC). This company uses aluminum-assisted water splitting technology to produce hydrogen-on-demand, according to this post on Fuel Cell Markets.

Light-Based Technologies (Vancouver, BC). Founded in 2004, this company has technology to improve the efficiency of solid-state lighting. The industry commonly uses digital technology to control light-emitting diodes, but this company says its analog methods are better at managing brightness, color, and temperature, using a fraction of the energy.

Lignol Innovations (Burnaby, BC). This company is developing a process for manufacturing cellulosic ethanol, based on a $100 million investment from General Electric and Repap Enterprises. Lignol initially plans to use wood chips as feedstock, and then other cellulosic feedstocks.

Author: Luke Timmerman

Luke is an award-winning journalist specializing in life sciences. He has served as national biotechnology editor for Xconomy and national biotechnology reporter for Bloomberg News. Luke got started covering life sciences at The Seattle Times, where he was the lead reporter on an investigation of doctors who leaked confidential information about clinical trials to investors. The story won the Scripps Howard National Journalism Award and several other national prizes. Luke holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and during the 2005-2006 academic year, he was a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT.