Andrew Csinger

Last Thursday I attended RDAR (Results Driven Agriculture Research)'s annual Round-Up. These events are always worthwhile. RDAR has assembled an outstanding, and effective, Alberta innovation community. The Keynote Speaker was Dr. John Pomeroy, whose keynote offered what most keynotes lack; extensive research and hard facts. Dr. Pomeroy addressed the cumulative and forward looking effects of climate change on Canadian, and particularly Western Canadian, agriculture. TLDR; Western Canada is going to do well. Our general trend is warmer and wetter, increasing yields, cultivatable species, and hectares. Moisture timing will change and will require new infrastructure to manage, but this is achievable. But I was fortunate to have a brief lunch time conversation with Dr. Pomeroy, which was even more insightful. We discussed the US water situation. There has been extensive coverage of exhaustion of the Colorado, which is now constraining agriculture throughout the US SW. Mexico is unable to provide it's flow commitments to the Rio Grande, and the situation is escalating. (https://lnkd.in/g5EVU6S8) The Ogallala Aquifer drives 1/3 of US agriculture, but it's exhaustion is causing cropland to be abandoned. (https://lnkd.in/g7DQfHxH) The Columbia River Treaty expires this year, making much of agriculture in the US NW now dependent on Canadian largess. (https://lnkd.in/gMNppAbw) Dr. Pomeroy raised the point that many of the worlds megalopolises are in the US, driving demand upon, and conflicts over, most of these sources. Our consensus; US food security is in deep trouble. And they have no domestic capacity to resolve the situation. The US will be hungry. And Western Canada is the closest, and hence most affordable, source to sate that hunger. Western Canadian agriculture can, and must, change drastically, and rapidly, to meet this demand. We have no choice; circumstances have imposed this upon us. Where Canada does have a choice is whether we engage this opportunity strategically, and resource Canadian farmers, food processors, marketers, input suppliers, and AgTech innovators to seize this opportunity for Canada. Or do we continue our current passive path, where non-operator land owners, and foreign owned input suppliers and production marketers, will secure most of the returns in Canada, while most of the returns are realized outside Canada as we continue to be primarily an exporter of unprocessed commodities. Simply put, does Canada want to just drive the tractor? Or do we want to own, and realize the returns from, the tractor, the land it produces from, the processing plant that adds much of the value, and the marketing systems that tie it all together? Driving tractors is fun and easy. But just driving tractors will not sustain Canada as a wealthy first world nation.

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Thanks to its market-based competitive energy market Alberta has seen a surge of renewable energy investment in recent years, leading the country in the deployment phase of low-cost #clean #electricity. But with transmission and distribution regulated separately from the energy supply market, strains and congestion have arisen, along with questions as to how best to distribute transmission costs. The Canadian Climate Institute / Institut climatique du Canada has published a thoughtful commentary by Jason Dion, Sara Hastings-Simon and Tim Weis on “Alberta’s evolving electricity market” and questions which need addressing. Find that analysis here: https://lnkd.in/dwsJwBm2 An excerpt: “Alberta has dominated renewable energy development in Canada in the 2020s. Claiming 60% of Canada’s #solar and #wind power construction in 2021, this grew to 77% in 2022, and 92% in 2023. This remarkable increase was the product of Alberta’s open electricity market, underdeveloped nation-leading renewable resources, as well as strengthened environmental, social and governance (ESG) drivers among corporations and institutions, and of course the low costs of wind and solar technologies. Though some commentators observed that the rapid renewables growth in many U.S. states offered a roadmap of the growth to come, system planning did not keep up in Alberta. Transmission planners consistently underestimated wind and solar growth—for example, solar growth outstripped the system operator’s 20-year forecast within less than 2 years of its publication. As a result, grid congestion has become an unexpected technical reality facing newly built projects, and a spectre hanging over the financing decisions for projects slated to be built in coming months and years.” #cdnpoli

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Per Joseph Fournier ONE EVENT A YEAR CAN DECIMATE SOCIETY RELYING ON SOLAR AND WIND Every winter of late, Alberta's wind and solar generation vanishes for days on end during periods of extreme demand. You only need one event in a year to decimate a society because of a blackout. https://lnkd.in/e8Ec3PYu

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Canada's Battery Revolution: Are We the Comeback Kid? 🔋   A few years ago, I attended a battery development session in a government capacity with Moe Kabbara, where I met Jeff Dahn, Professor Emeritus and Principal Investigator for the NSERC/Tesla Canada/Dalhousie Alliance Grant.   I was surprised back then to learn that Canada was a pioneer in lithium-ion batteries in the 80's, but our early innovations often lacked the support for commercialization, much like the Avro Arrow—cutting-edge research abandoned too soon.   Jeff's insights highlighted the pivotal role Canada has played in battery technology.   ......For instance, in 2001, Dahn and his Dalhousie University team, in partnership with 3M, developed and patented specific grades of lithium nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) oxide compounds. ......Today, NMC materials are widely used in power tools and electric vehicles globally.   As Jeff aptly put it in the new Canadian Battery Innovation Roadmap: 🚀"Canada's battery research community has always been at the cutting edge. With the right support and investment, we can translate this scientific excellence into homegrown industrial capacity." Thank-you for sharing with us!   The roadmap is a step forward and collectively we can reclaim our spot as a global battery innovator.🥇   As with this report it will take more valuable input from numerous stakeholders across Canada's battery ecosystem, including industry leaders, researchers, policymakers, and innovators. ...and educating on upstream mineral development. If you want to learn more, just ask!   Share your thoughts on how we can collectively drive this vision forward!

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This short video provides an excellent illustration of how #innovators can leap over gaps along their scaling journey, by engaging Ontario Centre of Innovation's #C2C, #Connect2Commercialize program. Check it out! It is one of many brilliant assists available to #Ontario's innovative #SME's.

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