Monthly Archive March 30, 2017

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New Brunswick startup testing energy storage device in Summerside

New Brunswick startup testing energy storage device

in Summerside

PI-A01-30032017-StashEnergy2.jpg

Stash Energy’s technology works in conjunction with a heat pump to store energy when it is at its cheapest point of the day for use to help heat

the home during more expensive peak hours.

New Brunswick company founded by three university students has signed

a deal to test an energy storage device they invented, in Summerside.

Stash Energy, based in Fredericton, was co-founded by Jordan Kennie, Daniel Larsen and Erik Hatfield. Kennie and Hatfield are from New Brunswick while

Larsen is from Belfast, P.E.I. All three are students at UNB completing their masters in engineering entrepreneurship.

Since 2015 they’ve been working to create a device that uses smart grid technology to take cheap off-peak energy and store it thermally using a unique

compound they created to do the job and are working to patent. That stored energy can then be used during peak hours when electricity is more expensive.

The system works in conjunction with a heat pump. It’s comparable in size and look to a standard hot water tank

New Brunswick energy storage Startup Stash Energy is getting ready to launch a pilot program to test their technology in Summerside as part

of the Living Lab initiative. Stash Energy was founded by, from left: Daniel Larsen, Jordan Kennie, and Erik Hatfield. Rob Blanchard Photo

UNB University of New Brunswick

“Working with the guys from Summerside Electric and the City of Summerside has just been fantastic. They’ve been great mentors.” 

The partnership came about because Larsen listened a presentation from the city during one of his classes at UPEI, which he

attended prior to UNB. He was impressed with the level to which the city was willing to support emerging and innovative electrical technology.

A couple of years later, when the group started to work on their technology, Larsen approached the city. 

It’s great to be able to take an innovative project like this to the next level in his home province, said Larsen. 

“I like that P.E.I. is doing something innovative and I think it reflects well on the Island,” he said.

“A lot of much bigger players look up to what Summerside is doing,” he added.   

If the Stash Energy pilot project goes well, the company hopes to start offering units for sale within a couple

of years. They estimate their systems could save homeowners another 30 per cent on their heating

costs in addition to savings from a heat pump. “Big picture for the company would be to have one of these (systems)

in every home. But realistically, if one in four New Brunswick homes had our unit, heat pump and storage, we would be

able to decommission one of our coal generating stations,” said Kennie.

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Charlottetown customer engagement service projecting 400,000 new users

Charlottetown customer engagement

service projecting 400,000 new users

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Jordan Fraser, founder of BamText, hopes to have one million people using his texting service by 2018.

CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. – BamText, a Charlottetown-based customer engagement company,

is projecting to increase their yearly users by nearly 400,000 in just one year.

 

Our business is based around how people communicate, and texting is the

fastest growing communication

tool in the world Jordan Fraser

“Our business is based around how people communicate, and texting is the fastest growing

communication tool in the world,”said BamText founder Jordan Fraser. BamText partners with

businesses across Canada and the United States, and sets up a feedback service, which allows

customers to text the store’s manager directly if they have a complaint while at there. BamText is

great for both the customers and the businesses, Fraser said. “It helps the customer get their problem

solved quickly. For businesses, it decreases the chances that the person is going to take to social media

and rant about their bad experience, which is something they don’t want to happen.”   

Fraser had the idea for the company in 2013 after he had to wait for nearly half an hour, unattended,

at a sunglass store, before leaving in anger. “There had to be a way for me to let that manager know

about how bad my experience was there,” he said. Fraser searched for apps to do this, but didn’t

find any good ones. That’s when he thought of a texting service. He approached Keir Pollard, a

developer at the electronic company Fraser had been working at, with the idea. The two began

thinking about how this would work. “We knew it had to be free, simple and instant. The whole

idea is if I have a problem at a restaurant and text the manager, they get my complaint right

away and can do something about it.” After six weeks of development, BamText launched on

Feb. 12, 2014 and had its first client within two weeks. Since then, BamText has partnered

up with companies like A&W, Circle K, Pita Pit, as well as many small, local businesses

across Canada and the United States. They’ve increased their yearly users from 30,000

in their first year, to 110,000 in their second, to 280,000 in their third, and are projecting

to have roughly 700,000 by the end of 2017. Fraser said he’s surprised by the company’s

rapid success.  “We’re only six people who work at BamText, and over the past three years

roughly 500,000 people have used our system. It’s incredible.” Along with the customer

feedback service, BamText also offers a text-voting product at food events, where people

attending can vote for their favourite dish. BamText also introduced a service last year that

allows golfers on the course to text their food and drink orders to the manager, and have it

delivered it to them. Looking ahead, Fraser wants to have one million people using BamText

by 2018, a goal he knows won’t be easy. “It’s a big number. We’d have to nearly double the

number of users BamText had last year, but if things keep going like this, I’m confident

we’ll be able to hit it by 2018.”

Original Story:

Found here

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Samsung, Summerside, launching solar energy storage project

Samsung, Summerside, launching solar

energy storage project

The City of Summerside has partnered with international tech giant Samsung to test a

massive solar energy battery.

PI-AXX-XXXX2017-Samsung.jpg

Summerside Mayor Bill Martin shakes hands with Steve Cho, president of Samsung Renewable Energy, during an announcement

at Credit Union Place Thursday.

The pilot programs’ proponents are touting it as a first in Canada.

Samsung Renewable Energy Inc. and city made the announcement Thursday. The project will coincide

with a solar energy project the city had previously announced for Credit Union Place (CUP) in an effort to

shrink the facility’s massive electrical bill. The city pays more than $380,000 annually to power the facility

and the battery and solar panels are expected to save the CUP a little more than $100,000 annually. 

Thursday’s announcement was the culmination of a lot of hard work by a string of people from P.E.I.

to Korea, where Samsung is based, said Summerside Mayor Bill Martin. “This was a year in the

making … our agreement for this project is 510 pages long, for Phase I. So it took a lot of work,

a lot of back and forth. So I would say (I’m) a combination of extremely excited, proud and relieved,”

said Martin.

Image result for Samsung Renewable Energy Inc. 

    Other Samsung Renewable Energy Inc. projects going on in Canada   

Connor, Clark & Lunn Infrastructure and Samsung announce $633 million solar bond financing

Martin also said that this is phase one in what could be a three-part project with Samsung. It all

depends on how this initial pilot project goes, but the two parties have signed a memorandum of

understanding regarding all three phases. Phase one involves constructing a shipping container-sized

battery and integrating it into CUP’s electric system. The battery will be fed power from 1,300

solar panels the city plans to build on a portion of the facility’s current parking lot. The battery

will store excess energy and pump it into the building during peak use hours. To accommodate

the build, one of the outdoor beach volleyball courts will be moved. The city does not expect to lose

any parking spaces as a result of the solar panels. Phase 2, if it happens, will include the construction

of a new solar/wind farm. This phase would bump the percentage of electricity the city gets from

renewable sources from 46 per cent to 70 per cent. Phase three would include investment in more electric

pilot projects, such as infrastructure for electric vehicles and a smart grid system. Martin said he expects

Phase 1 to be completed sometime this fall. The Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency is providing $1.5 million

to the battery project, as is the city, for a total of $3 million in public funding. Steve Cho,

president of Samsung Renewable Energy Inc., said Thursday that his company has been welcomed

graciously into Summerside and they are looking forward to getting to work. “Summerside has the

great potential to evolve into the best smart grid community in Canada,” said Cho. 

“We believe that Summerside is the right place to adopt more emerging technology and build energy infrastructure

on the community scale. “Today’s announcement is the first step towards achieving this great vision … and

we are very excited to enter into the more refined design stage of the project.”

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ACOA provides $1.5M for Summerside solar energy project

ACOA provides $1.5M for Summerside

solar energy project

Related image

Solar farm will be installed at Credit Union Place

Solar Panel Map

The federal government has stepped in with some money for a large solar energy project on P.E.I.

ACOA is providing a grant of $1.5 million for a solar energy gathering and storage system at Credit Union Place, the major sports

facility in Summerside.

The project will reduce the city’s reliance on carbon-based energy production.

“The city of Summerside’s Smart Storage demonstration project is an excellent example of the sort of innovative solutions that

will drive our economy into the future,” said Navdeep Bains, the federal minister responsible for ACOA, in a news release.

The total cost of the project has been previously estimated at $3 million, and the city has said it is willing to contribute $1.5 million,

because it expects to save about $100,000 a year in energy costs.

The solar panels would go on green space behind CUP. There had been previous discussion of placing some of the panels in a parking lot,

which would have cost about 10 parking spaces, but that idea has since been dropped.

Solar Panel pic

Potential for 30% green power at CUP

Gaudet said it’s difficult to have a clear estimate on costs right now because the costs of solar panels have

changed so much recently. He said generally speaking, the panels could cost between $1.2- 1.5 million. 

He said that’s $2.40/watt, and overall this project would be about 600 kilowatts.

There will also be the battery system aspect of the project, and Gaudet said there is no estimate for that right now.

Mayor Bill Martin

Mayor Bill Martin said this project could be a done deal by next summer

Mayor Bill Martin said this initiative is part of a bigger plan.

“Our long term plan is to have somewhere in the neighbourhood about a 15 megawatt solar farm,” said Martin.

“Obviously it won’t be located anywhere near downtown Summerside, but it will be connected to our grid system,

which would get us up to about 70 per cent green energy.”

Martin believes this initial project will be in the works next year.

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Forestry.io hopes to build ‘world-class business’ on P.E.I.

Forestry.io co-founder says after launching only four

months ago, it already has 5,000 users

Forestry.io is a content management tool for websites.

A Charlottetown tech start-up is aiming to be at the “leading edge” of website management.

Forestry.io is a content management tool for websites. Once a website has been designed, Forestry.io can be used to keep it updated.

‘We’d like to hire some of the brightest minds in the region, and build really cool products and build a world-class business from here.’– Scott Gallant

Co-founder Scott Gallant says the service only launched four months ago, and it already has 5,000 users worldwide.

“We see this as the future of the web,” he said. “In a few years, we think, no developer will use a site like WordPress and, all developers will use the platforms that we support and we just want to be at the leading edge of that.”

The company was accepted into the accelerator program Tech Stars, which offered three months of mentoring and $125,000 US in financial support.

Hiring more staff

Six people are employed now with Forestry.io, Gallant said, and they’re looking to hire a programmer, a designer and some administrative help in the next few months.

Gallant hopes to eventually take the company public, like Ottawa-based Shopify did a couple of years ago.

“We’d like to hire some of the brightest minds in the region, and build really cool products and build a world-class business from here.”

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