Cleantech is Ottawa’s strongest sector, new study shows

9 February 2010

A clean energy industry survey by the Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation (OCRI) shows Ottawa’s fledgling cleantech sector is the strongest of any of the city’s 13 unique technology clusters.

The study shows the city’s number of cleantech companies has increased more than ten per cent in 2009, from 103 companies in 2008 to 114 as of December 2009. The number of Ottawa’s cleantech employees is also up from 2,050 to 2,567, an increase of 25.2 per cent.

Martin Prosperity Institute director Richard Florida has also rated the Canadian city of Ottawa as the best overall city in the country on a creative class index based on three main criteria – technology, talent and tolerance.

Florida rates 22 places higher than New York, two places higher than Boston, four places higher than Washington and one place higher than San Jose.

One of Ottawa’s cleantech stars is venture-backed solar cell developer Cyrium Technologies, which was founded in 2002 to develop high efficiency solar cells for the concentrator photovoltaic industry.

Canadian energy efficiency company Group IV Semiconductor received $3.6m last month from the Province of Ontario’s Innovation Demonstration Fund to help expand its fabrication facility at Carleton University and complete technology development for a new generation of low-cost solid-state light bulbs that will use up to 90 per cent less electricity than regular bulbs and last much longer.

‘Ottawa is going after cleantech opportunities more aggressively than ever before,’ said Claude Haw, president and CEO, OCRI. ‘We have carefully built Ottawa’s value proposition for the cleantech sector with four American benchmark cities in mind. From our superior Creative Class Index rating to housing prices to smog days to healthcare costs, we handily beat out New York, Boston, Washington and San Jose. And where the rubber really hits the road, business taxes, Ottawa and Canada are becoming low-tax havens in North America while the Obama administration has proposed to tax an additional $400bn from businesses in its latest budget plan. We’re North America’s ideal city for relocation or expansion of international cleantech businesses, and Canada’s Creative Economy Capital.’

OCRI is Ottawa’s principal economic development agency.

Copyright © 2010 NewNet

Tags: clean energy

This story was published on Tuesday, February 9th, 2010 at 7:11 pm and is filed under North America, companies, energy efficiency. You can follow any responses to article entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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