Energy conservation was the theme of the night at tonight’s New Ventures BC Award Ceremony at the SFU Segal School of Business, where the winners of the 2008 competition were announced. All three top awards went to entrepreneurial ideas focused on energy conservation.
All three top prize winners are located in the Lower Mainland region and were awarded for their innovative and ground-breaking technological ideas.
“It’s always interesting to see which companies our panel awards the top prizes,” says Ernie Love, Chair of BC Ventures Society. “I think the fact that all three winners work within the energy conservation field really speaks to BC’s place on the international map as a leader in sustainability and our entrepreneurs are clearly making a large contribution to that reputation.”
Local Vancouver company Saltworks Technologies took home two prizes – the coveted BC Hydro first place of $60,000 as well as the BC Hydro sustainability award of $20,000. The Enbridge second place award went to West Vancouver’s Small Energy Group while third place went to Squamish-located Echoflex Solutions. All three also received BC Innovation Council Proof-of-Concept awards - dollar amounts below.
BC Hydro First Prize - $60,000 cash & services; $100,000 BC Innovation Council Proof-of-concept Award
BC Hydro Sustainability Prize - $20,000 cash
Saltworks Technologies Inc. has developed a patent-pending solar process for desalination that offers significant electrical energy savings. The desalination market is estimated to grow by $56 billion over the next seven years and energy efficiency remains its greatest challenge.
Enbridge Second Prize - $38,000 cash & services; $50,000 BC Innovation Council Proof-of-concept Award
Small Energy Group’s Energy Management Software communicates with a large number of building automation and metering systems to collect, archive, analyze and communicate energy information. The system helps building owners and operators to quickly identify and resolve inefficient energy use, helps occupants learn how their buildings perform and ultimately helps to save money and reduce emissions.
Third Prize - $17,000 cash & services; $50,000 BC Innovation Council Proof-of-concept Award
Echoflex Solutions has introduced a new technology aimed at providing easy and automated energy conservation options for businesses.The company has developed a line of wireless, self-powered switches and sensors for retrofitting rooms into smart spaces for intelligent building control and energy conse
Victoria’s Charge It! Payment Solutions (website under construction) has developed a suite of faster, ultra-reliable and affordable data-encryption products certified to meet international Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance standards. Created by a software team with a military technology background, Charge It! is one of the first companies to develop PCI-compliant products that are also affordable for smaller businesses concerned about data security.
The end result for businesses using Charge It!’s devices is increased protection for consumers from both an identity and financial information standpoint.
New Ventures BC 2008 Finalist TeraTek is developing new imaging technology that uses Terahertz (THz) frequencies in the electromagnetic spectrum to see through non-conductive forestry materials. The technology creates better-than-x-ray imaging for various characteristics such as density, moisture content and strength. The Prince George-based company plans to initially use its imaging system and software in lumber mills to analyze fiber structures and characteristics that can’t be seen using x-rays or microwaves.
Be sure to check out their recent interview on CKPG television in Prince George.
Cyclists who load SoundofMotion’s VeloComputer software onto their mobile phone, coupled with a wireless sensor attached to their bicycle wheel, can transform their mobile phone into an advanced cycling computer. The highly accurate sensor transmits precise motion data to the software, which then displays spot speed, acceleration, time and distance traveled on the cell phone’s display. The data can also be downloaded to a computer for training analysis.
Interestingly enough, the idea behind SoundOfMotion was born thanks to hybrid cars and their silent engines. SoundOfMotion founders decided to create an electronic sound simulator which could produce a realistic simulation of motion with a sound and be customized with different sound themes. They quickly realized that not only hybrid cars pose a silent problem - bicycles are silent too. Though, they pose a lesser danger for pedestrians than hybrid cars but put cyclists at a disadvantage on busy streets.
One of the challenges was to create a highly sensitive, accurate, yet simple motion sensor. Traditional spoke-attached sensors take at least one full 360 degrees revolution of a wheel to detect motion. Which wouldn’t be good enough for reliable sound simulation - imagine hearing a breaking sound 5 seconds after you stop. The solution was to come up with new technology that measures as little as 1 degree of wheel motion - about 360 times more accurately than traditional cycling sensors.
But why use a mobile phone instead of a traditional cycling computer as a computing device? Because everybody has one. The result is the first Mobile Bicycle Computer - VeloComputerTM. While SoundOfMotion continues enhancing VeloComputer for mobile devices, they are also continuing work on sound simulation and safety devices for hybrid, electric, fuel cell and other alternative vehicles.
Singular Software creates software that helps audio and video producers make their content look and sound better. Video professionals who currently spend hours and days setting up to edit video footage shot with multiple cameras can now do it instantly using Singular Software’s new synchronization plug-in for commercially available editing programs.
With the touch of a button, Singular’s plug-in automatically synchronizes multiple camera and audio clips of the same event in just a few minutes. As an example of Singular’s work, check out the following mashup of YouTube videos of the opening of the Apple Store in Vancouver in May 2008. The videos from several attendees were synchronized and then edited in Final Cut Pro.
Vancouver-based Saltworks Technologies Inc. is a green technology company that has developed a patent-pending solar process for desalination that offers significant electrical energy savings. The desalination market is estimated to grow by $56 billion over the next seven years and energy efficiency remains its greatest challenge.
Water is desalinated in order to be converted to fresh water suitable for human consumption or irrigation. Sometimes the process produces table salt as a by-product. Most of the modern interest in desalination is focused on developing cost-effective ways of providing fresh water for human use in regions where the availability of water is limited. Saltworks Technologies patent-pending solar process aims to solve that problem.
Kelowna-based Pure Lignin Environmental Technology has patented a simple, efficient process for turning waste vegetation, such as beetle-killed pine trees and sugar cane waste, into three profitable products: pure lignin (wikipedia definition), commercial cellulose and carbons for bio-fuels and protein. The company’s portable plant combines chemicals in a unique, low-pressure closed-loop steam process that transforms the waste into usable products without emitting pollutants or toxins.
In January, Pure Lignin Environmentla Technology was nominated for the Okanagan Science and Technology Council’s 2008 Silicon Vineyard Awards and was a finalist in “Most Promising Emerging Technology of the Year Award”.
New Ventures BC 2008 Finalist Primisyn is already a recognized leader in providing business intelligence and profitability solutions to the Credit Union industry in Canada.
Delta-headquartered Primisyn’s comprehensive suite of solutions allows Credit Unions to analyze the profitability contribution of all aspects of their business including members, products, branches, and lines of business. Their solutions are in use at 6 of BC’s Top 20 Credit Unions and over 26 Credit Unions across Canada.
Primisyn provides value by combining technical expertise with insight and expertise drawn from over 50 combined years of experience working with Credit Unions in the risk management, finance, treasury, and technology areas. The result is a robust suite of business intelligence products, which allow Credit Unions to make more informed, accurate, and profitable decisions.
To learn more about how Primisyn’s analysis is turning Credit Union branch managers into marketing gurus, be sure to read their Westminster Saving Credit Union case study (PDF).
Burnaby’s GR Green Building Materials Inc. has developed a proprietary process for producing ‘green’, carbon positive, roofing and siding materials that don’t crack when nailed, look remarkably like real cedar and slate, are fire-proof, impact-resistant and cost a fraction of the real thing.
By ensuring nothing is wasted and considering the impact of a product’s life cycle on the environment and people’s lives, GR goes beyond sustainability, to environmental responsibility in manufacturing. GR’s ‘GreenBuilding’ Cedar and Slate products are non-toxic, carbon positive and 100% recyclable, after 50 years of use.
Owners Geoff Wensel and Robert Suggitt are engineers and know plastics, construction, and manufacturing. In 2005, using a regular oven and a rolling pin, they invented a process that produces ‘green’ roofing and siding materials like nothing else on the market. Three and a half years later, they’re ready to launch full-scale production in the spring of 2009.
Squamish’s Echoflex Solutions offers unique solutions for today’s retrofit and energy conservation challenges by allowing building owners, managers, and tenants an option to retrofit incrementally with wireless and self-powered switches and sensors.
Using EnOcean technology (a spin-off of Siemens AG), Echoflex switches and sensors reduce energy consumption for lighting, HVAC and process control. EnOcean, the inventor of self-powered radio modems, couples micro power generators with ultra-low power radio modules. EnOcean modules operate inside self-powered wireless sensors and switches.
Retrofit projects with the quickest payback can be addressed first and further upgrades can be done as easily as the original installation because each space thinks for itself. Change of plans? Echoflex’s switches and sensors are easily moved if the use of the space changes. The technology is also interoperable with building automation systems providing wireless extensions through interfaces and gateways. successful applications for Echoflex technology range from family homes to cubicle farms.
Saltworks Technologies Inc., Vancouver, BC
Small Energy Group – West Vancouver, BC
Echoflex Solutions – Squamish, BC
