The White Sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus) population in the lower Columbia River was listed as endangered under the Species at Risk Act in 2006. Natural recruitment failure has occurred since the 1970s, with regular spawning occurring but insufficient numbers of viable offspring reaching juvenile stage to sustain the population. A recovery strategy has included the establishment […]

This project investigates substitution of fossil fuels with electricity from renewable sources for the purpose of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in British Columbia. Burning natural gas, gasoline, diesel and other petroleum products heats our buildings, drives out cars, and powers our industries. Electricity generated from hydro, wind, and solar power can provide those same services, […]

Monitoring biodiversity using DNA-based approaches has many advantages for large-scale studies. DNA metabarcoding can assess the presence, absence, and abundance of species in a sample where individuals are not morphologically identifiable, such as bulk samples of larval fishes or from environmental DNA (eDNA) in water samples. We propose to develop a high-throughput metabarcoding-based approach that […]

The Paris Agreement, which was signed in December 2015 and went into effect in November 2016, outlines a framework for a new market mechanism that could incentivize countries to reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions: internationally transferred mitigation outcomes (ITMOs). ITMOs enable countries to transfer emissions reduction credits between countries to efficiently find those areas […]

Drinking water utilities must maintain water quality in the face of unexpected shocks to the system as well as planned upgrades with unintended consequences. Failure to do so can result in significant threats to public health: the city of Flint, Michigan, for instance, experienced a water quality crisis after making changes to source water chemistry […]

Renewable sources of electricity continue to increase in market share across all jurisdictions. New wind and solar energy projects in Alberta will be the main drivers to reach the province’s 2030 target to have 30% of its electricity derived from renewable sources. Alongside these projects the power generation companies like TransAlta Corporation will need to […]

Sayisi Dene First Nation is a fly-in remote northern Manitoba community wanting to shift to clean energy. Kisik Clean Energy focuses for this project on shifting this diesel energy-dependent First Nation communities to solar energy integrating energy storage with lithium-ion batteries for assisting with microgrid technology. The Sun will soon deliver the Sayisi Dene community’s […]

Connectivity is a critical service, a foundational need to actively participate in the economy and society. However, rural communities in British Columbia (BC) continue to face challenges with connectivity. The COVID-19 pandemic has put a spotlight on this digital divide, demonstrating the inequities resulting from connectivity challenges. Across rural BC, local governments have been increasingly […]

In this project, we will develop software-based models to monitor and to predict the performance of Perovskites-based PVBlindsTM for optimal energy management and optimal integration into buildings, as well as to diagnose faults of PV cells for safe, efficient, and reliable operation. The PVBlindsTM are developed by Solaires Inc. and will be deployed at various […]

Energy storage systems (ESS) are vital components in the power grid to ensure the reliable performance of the power grid integrated a considerable amount of renewable energy resources (DER). ESSs are employed to compensate for the unexpected changes in DERs and shift load during peak hours. ESSs are complex structures consisting of several series and […]

In this project we propose to evaluate the synergistic effects of fatigue and corrosion to further understand the degradation mechanism of the alloys used by our partner. This will help the partner defining their total cost of ownership & develop mitigating corrosion strategies to ensure long term sustainability of their infrastructure. Specifically, we will i) […]

Climate change has been a top concern of Canadians for the past several years. Canada is among the 3 top global CO2 emitters per capita. Our goal is to develop and commercialize a cheaper solar energy harvesting system to help Canada decarbonize its economy. Silicon has the most mature technology in the photovoltaic market. Silicon […]