Conference is a ‘tremendous learning and networking opportunity
for industry professionals’
Northeast PHP 2017 conference chair Peter MacIntyre (left) and conference participant Lincoln Maskey discuss plans for this year’s event. (CBC)
The government of P.E.I. has given a $8,000 grant to Northeast PHP 2017 — a major IT conference being hosted
in Charlottetown from Aug. 9 to 11.
The Rodd Charlottetown will host the IT conference, marking the second consecutive year that Northeast PHP has
been hosted on the province.
“Northeast PHP 2017 gives increased profile to the industry here and that may attract new start ups or business
expansions to our province,” said Lincoln Maskey, a senior software engineer with iWave Information Systems an a
conference participant in a government news release.
“Beyond that, this is a tremendous learning and networking opportunity for industry professionals on the Island and
one that will pay dividends for the IT sector.”
Building on last year’s success
The government of P.E.I said the IT sector contributes roughly $200 million annually to to the provincial economy
and employs over 1,800 people.
“We had an amazing response from the many presenters and delegates who came to Charlottetown last year for the
2016 edition of the conference,” said conference organized Peter MacIntyre.
“This year we are trying to build on that success.”
Original Source http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/pei-it-conference-grant-1.4229135?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_feed%3BuCNylggvRDe%2BIdWzfWWDEg%3D%3D
ENTREVESTOR: P.E.I. firm transforms water filtration
Island Water Technologieshas completed the first installations of its Regen water-treatment facility, and those two projects are providing
the company with the one thing it needs to win other contracts — data. Based in Montague, P.E.I., IWT now has two products on the market,
both of which offer efficient means of treating water away from urban locations. Regen can treat waste water for remote facilities ideally
housing 75 to 250 people. And the company also offers ClearPod, an efficient septic system for individual households.
While ClearPod is gaining traction across Canada, IWT in the past year has installed Regen facilities with the Canadian military at
Gagetown, N.B., and at a remote oil services camp in Hassi Messaoud, Algeria.
CEO Patrick Kiely said in an interview this week that these two Regen installations are giving the company data on such facets as the amount
of water treated and the overall energy consumption. And that means it can prove to potential clients that the system works. Kiely hopes he
can record a couple more installations by year’s end.
“Our big barriers to sales are the lead times it takes to do a deal, but we should be able to minimize that because
we have the data,” he said. “So now we’re ready to ramp up our business development.”
Regen is a self-contained product that provides state-of-the-art water treatment in remote locations. It all fits in a shipping container,
so it can be delivered virtually anywhere in the world. Solar panels bolt on to the exterior to power the operation.
Kiely explained that the technology is effective because it requires so little energy — it relies on a unique plastic material that can treat
water using a fraction of the energy required by competing systems. Regen uses so little electricity that it can draw all the energy it needs
from solar panels, meaning it does not need an external source of electricity. And because of its plastic system, Regen needs no chemicals
to be added during the treatment process.
The Algerian project, which was installed in a couple of days once the people and materials arrived at the camp, is successfully producing
water that is pure enough to be used to irrigate farms. At
Gagetown, IWT is working with emergency disaster relief teams so that Regen could be deployed in the event of a humanitarian disaster.
ClearPod, meanwhile, continues to gain clients in Canada and abroad. Island Water is selling the product through a distributer in B.C.,
and it just received approval from the Ministry of the Environment in Ontario. IWT’s distributor in Ontario is also active in China and
has sold demo products to potential partners in the country. IWT has also began to reach out to clients in such countries as Honduras and
Kenya.
Island Water now employs 10 people and is in the process of raising capital to scale up its business development team. The target is an
equity investment of $2.5 million, which would transform the business.
“Every industry is different and the waste water space requires a lot of patience,” said Kiely. “For the last four
years, we’ve been bootstrapping and purposefully been keeping costs very low. Now it’s a matt of scaling and
making sure we have the outreach with the clients.”
Original Source: http://thechronicleherald.ca/business/1484107-entrevestor-p.e.i.-firm-transforms-water-filtration?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_feed%3BL7iJFgMdSP6M6gWPEyNA2A%3D%3D
City of Summerside working with Honeywell to become
more energy efficient
Rob Philpott outside Summerside’s city hall. City hall is one of the facilities being audited to determine energy efficiency and where there is room for improvement.
Summerside is going green, but not in colour.
“We’re very proud of our reputation as an energy leader in the region. But having said that we know that some of our
facilities we constructed during a time where energy efficient technology was just starting to appear,”
said Rob Philpott, the chief financial officer for the City of Summerside.
Since then there has been a lot of progress made, he added. On Thursday the city announced their partnership with Honeywell,
an energy services provider selected through a RFP process. “We decided to engage them because of their reputation for energy management and
leadership. They’ve done many of theses projects over the years with municipalities, hospitals and universities so we wanted to tap into expertise.”
The city’s Energy and Facility Renewal Program, which is cost neutral to the city, will look at areas in city facilities and the city itself to realize
areas of improvement in energy usage. At this point, there is no target reduction set. “We don’t have one in mind yet simply because right now
Honeywell is in the process of doing their audits. They’re going to be looking at the building envelopes, lighting, heating and ventilation.”
For context, said Philpott, the city’s annual energy bill, which includes heat and electricity that is consumed at all of the facilities, is
about $1 million a year. “Then if you add on the electricity it takes for the streetlights throughout the city, that’s another half a million dollars approximately.
When you look at a $1.5 million expense every year, there are hopefully opportunities to reduce it.” The first phase of the program involves an assessment
of the city’s building infrastructure, which includes validating the current conditions as well as occupancy schedules. Systems such as heating, ventilation,
air conditioning, mechanical equipment, lighting, building automation and air distribution systems will be the main areas of focus. The audit will also
look at street lighting to see if there are opportunities to save on the amount of electricity being used across the city. “We’re looking at just about all
city facilities including city hall, the fire department, the police station, Credit Union Place, the Culture Summerside properties as well as the municipal
services buildings. Once the audits are complete, the City will meet with Honeywell and discuss the upgrades that align with the City’s energy, sustainability
and other facility goals. Those selected will be aimed at revitalizing the city’s infrastructure while permanently reducing utility consumption and operating
costs as well as lower the city’s environmental footprint. There are always opportunities for improvement and we’re really trying hard to reduce our
carbon footprint especially with the possible implementation of a carbon tax system for the province pending.”
New Brunswick startup testing energy storage device
in Summerside
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.
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.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.