IRENA Innovation Day in Canada

IRENA Innovation Day: Canada – Innovative solutions to decarbonise power and end-use sectors

IRENA’s Innovation Days take place in different regions around the world and aim to connect innovators and policy makers. This series of events aims to showcase emerging innovations and to inspire and inform the broader and faster uptake of innovative solutions that can help deliver a renewable-powered future and decarbonise hard-to-abate sectors. IRENA Innovation Days build on IRENA’s biennial Innovation Week events but focus on the particular needs and experiences of groups of countries. To date, Innovation Days have been held in Uruguay, Thailand and Turkey.

IRENA Innovation Day: Canada took place virtually on 23^rd and 24^th March 2022. The event was organised together with Natural Resources Canada.

This event connected a diverse mix of experts, policymakers, and innovators from Canada with the international IRENA community for a two-way exchange about challenges and innovative solutions to decarbonise power and end-use sectors. It offered Canadian representatives and companies the opportunity to showcase successes, highlight challenges, learn from each other’s experience and explore how innovative solutions could help meet the national renewable targets under Paris Agreement. For countries and companies from further afield, this event provided the opportunity to virtually meet key local actors, showcase work and learn from the Canadian experience.

This Innovation Day in Canada focused on innovative solutions to decarbonise the power sector, with a specific focus on mini-grids of the future and innovative hydropower solutions for a clean, reliable and flexible grid, and on pathways to decarbonise end-use sectors of industry and transport, with a specific focus on advancements in decarbonising on-road transportation and innovative solutions to decarbonise the iron and steel sector. Discussions delved deeper into the topics of technology and processes, enabling frameworks, business models, and market readiness for wide-scale deployment and increased use of renewables and enabling technologies.

Session 1: Opening remarks and Mini-grids of the future

The panel delved into innovative solutions in off-grid, remote areas and islands, including interconnecting mini-grids together or with the main grid to increase their resilience and reliability, allow the integration of higher shares of renewable electricity and in turn decrease costs.

The presentation slides are available here.

Session 2: Innovative hydropower solutions for a clean, reliable and flexible grid

The panel explored the innovative solutions in hydropower and pumped hydro-storage to maximise its contribution to the grid, integrate and balance higher shares of variable renewables by offering a unique range of system services including provision of inertia, operation reserves, load following and time-shifting to long-duration storage.

The presentation slides are available here.

Session 3: Advancements in decarbonizing on-road transportation

The panel discussed some of the challenges and opportunities in technologies, enabling frameworks and business models in transitioning to low-carbon transport modes and related infrastructure.

The presentation slides are available here.

Session 4: Innovative solutions to decarbonize the iron and steel sector

The panel explored pathways to accelerate the development and dissemination of renewables and enabling solutions, including technologies and processes, enabling frameworks and business models to decarbonise the iron and steel industry.

The presentation slides are available here.