Grant: Applied Research and Technology Partnership Grants

The objective of this business driven portfolio of projects is to support the efforts of Frog Lake First Nations, their corporations and business partners' need to address national climate change goals through a process of greening their electrical power. Electrical power in Canada comes from a variety of diverse and reliable renewable and non-renewable energy sources. Rising electricity demand is a key greenhouse gas contributor. The desire of industry and communities to transition to cleaner energy sources is challenged by the need for validated energy solutions. As they transition to cleaner energy sources, Frog Lake First Nations will spend considerable time and investment into novel infrastructures which they seek to protect from wildfires; their reserves are situated boreal forest and at high risk of a significant burn. Many other businesses in Alberta are in a similar position with valuable infrastructure, people and resources situated in boreal forest and at risk of wildfires. The second objective of this research portfolio is to learn how to study wild fire risk, analysis of data from those studies and identification of mitigation recommendations. The research approach will be grounded in three projects of varying sizes that will undertake a set of applied research projects with a consortium of nine partners who all make significant in-kind contributions. Wildfire Resilience Mapping will ensure community infrastructure is protected. Wind Energy Connectivity will resolve renewable wind turbine infrastructure challenges for connection to existing grid utilities. Energy Storage Resiliency will develop novel long-term energy storage solutions with alternative energy integration via Vanadium. Redox Flow Batteries (RFB) and Regenerative Fuel Cell (RFC) will be studied for potential adoption by members of the consortium. The novelty and significance of the work is grounded in two key points. This is a novel collaborative effort of a consortium working to address reconciliation efforts through respectful and sustainable business partnerships between Indigenous and non- Indigenous corporations. It creates new opportunities for these corporations to apply innovative research and technologies and develop them into new products or services. Students and HQP are being trained in Indigenous relations, leading-edge green energy skills and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Beyond Line of Sight data gathering and analysis.