The OPA’s Technology Development Fund (TD Fund) was set up to augment R&D investment in Ontario’s energy sector which, according to the Ontario Centers of Excellence, is just 0.5% of annual revenues. In comparison, the Telecommunications industry in Ontario invests nearly 20% of its annual revenues into Research & Development.
Pre-commercial technologies or applications typically face a greater challenge in attracting the interest of venture capitalists and manufacturers due to the risk associated with projects at this stage. The Fund’s objective is to help these technologies and processes evolve to more commercially viable stages so they can benefit Ontario’s electricity consumers. The Fund has an annual budget of $1.5 million. Since its inception, the Fund has committed $3.1 million in funding to 30 projects. This funding has leveraged more than $35.6 million in partner support.
The application process to the TD Fund begins with the submission of an Expression of Interest (EoI) to the OPA. EoIs are then screened according to an evaluation criteria. In some cases, EoIs might be referred to one of two partner institutions – the Ontario Centres of Excellence (Centre for Energy) or CEATI. Each partner institution (or Managing Institution) has its own evaluation criteria for projects. Applicants whose EoIs comply with the evaluation criteria are then requested to submit a full project proposal.
Project proposals are subject to an in-depth business and technical review. Once through this stage, the proposal is recommended to the Grant Award Committee that determines the amount of funding and manages contract negotiations with the applicant. The OPA monitors the performance of all projects that receive grants through regular reports and updates from both applicants and the Managing Institutions.
Some examples of projects accepted by the TD Fund are Micro-CHP, WhalePower’s Tubercle Airfoils and the Cornwall Ontario River Energy (CORE) Project. Other examples are available here. For details about the fund, visit the TD Fund website.
