Canada Growth Fund invests in waste-to-energy facility in Alberta

An Alberta-based project that aims to turn banana peels into electricity is the latest to sign a deal with Ottawa’s clean energy investment arm.

What happened: The Canada Growth Fund will take a 40% stake in a Gibson Energy-led waste-to-energy facility in Edmonton. The deal guarantees that the feds will buy 200,000 tonnes of carbon credits from the project annually, starting at $85 apiece over the next 15 years.

• These pricing guarantees, known as carbon contracts for difference, ensure that if the price of carbon falls below a certain level, Ottawa will pay the difference.
• That assurance alleviates some of the financial risks associated with developing the largely unproven tech, while the industry waits for a carbon credit market to develop.

Why it matters: Carbon pricing is the pillar of Ottawa’s climate strategy. Just under half of the $15 billion in the Canada Growth Fund’s piggy bank is allocated for such carbon pricing deals, a mechanism that the feds see as essential to encouraging cleantech investments.

Big picture: This is the fund’s fourth investment since its launch in 2022, three of which have gone to Alberta-based companies. It has put $90 million into Eavor Technologies, a geothermal energy company, and $200 million into Entropy, a carbon capture company.

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