BC Marine Energy and Decarbonization Hub

The BC Marine Energy and Decarbonization Hub (or, “the Hub”) is advancing a new generation of ocean-based clean energy solutions in British Columbia.

By connecting technology developers with real-world needs, the Hub creates a direct pathway to test, demonstrate and commercialize marine energy and decarbonization innovations using shared infrastructure and coordinated expertise. This helps fast track the development and implementation of cutting-edge clean energy technologies.

Launched in April 2025, the Hub is a joint initiative of COAST and the University of Victoria, building on more than three decades of community-centred research and innovation conducted by the Integrated Energy Systems (IESVic), Pacific Regional Institute for Marine Energy Discovery (PRIMED) and ACET.

The Hub focuses on integrated energy systems that:

Capture energy from ocean resources;
Combine multiple generation sources, including renewables and conventional systems;
Enable advanced energy management, storage and transmission; and
Support decarbonization across coastal communities, infrastructure and marine industries.

By aligning innovation with real-world demand, the Hub serves as a catalyst for new technologies, new partnerships, and new economic opportunities across B.C.’s coastal regions.

Partners

The Hub is delivered through a collaborative model that brings together research, industry and public sector leadership.

Core Hub partners

Program and Challenge partners

BMT
Innovate BC (via Integrated Marketplace)
Canadian Coast Guard

Funding Partners

People

Brad Buckham, Lead Researcher, PRIMED
Curran Crawford, Executive Director / Co-Lead Researcher, ACET
Jason Goldsworthy, Executive Director, COAST
Kieran Buggy, Project Manager, COAST
Ross Flavell, Strategic Research Area Manager, ACET
Ben Whitby, Senior Electrical Engineer, PRIMED

Goals

The Hub is designed to accelerate the province’s transition to low-carbon marine energy systems while strengthening coastal economies and communities.

Its primary goals are to:

Enable technology testing and demonstration at meaningful scale;
Create pathways for coastal and remote communities to advance energy sovereignty;
Support job creation and regional economic development; and
Bridge the gap between innovation and adoption by connecting developers with end users.

At a systems level, the Hub addresses two critical challenges:

Ensuring technologies are shaped by real market and operational needs; and
Providing the infrastructure and capacity required to validate solutions in real-world conditions.

Testing and Demonstration Sites

The Hub establishes and maintains shared testing and demonstration sites along the B.C. coastline. These sites reduce barriers for innovators by providing access to common infrastructure such as electrical systems, energy storage and control systems, monitoring tools and grid integration capacity, which allows developers to focus on advancing their technologies.

These sites enable real-world validation of marine energy and decarbonization systems, incremental improvements in design, deployment and integration, and safe evaluation by potential adopters without operational risk.

For coastal communities, these sites also help de-risk the adoption of new energy systems. By subsidizing core infrastructure and enabling multiple technologies to be tested, the Hub creates flexible, lower-risk pathways to reliable, resilient and cost-effective energy solutions.

Innovation Challenges

Innovation Challenges are a central mechanism through which the Hub connects sector needs with emerging solutions. Developed in partnership with industry and public sector organizations, these challenges invite companies to propose and demonstrate technologies that address defined, real-world problems.

The inaugural challenge—issued in partnership with the Canadian Coast Guard and delivered through Innovate BC’s Integrated Marketplace—focuses on decarbonizing remote, land-based Coast Guard sites.

Priority areas include renewable energy generation (including wave, tidal, wind and solar), energy storage and management systems, and rapidly deployable modular microgrid solutions.

Selected companies receive funding, technical support and access to testing sites to validate performance under real operating conditions.

The inaugural cohort includes:

Ascent Systems Technologies
Cleohydron Innovation Inc
Mostar Labs Inc
Voltai Inc

Together, these projects are advancing integrated energy systems designed to displace diesel, improve reliability and support scalable deployment across remote coastal infrastructure.

Major Milestones

2023-2024: Foundation and Investment

Established the Hub as a research collaboration agreement between COAST and UVic, with contributions from public, private and community partners.
Secured $4.1 million in combined funding and partnership support.

2025-2026: Infrastructure and Challenge Design

Designed the first Innovation Challenge in partnership with COAST, Innovate BC, PRIMED and the Canadian Coast Guard.
Received expressions of interest from companies across BC.
Secured $400,000 from Innovate BC’s Integrated Marketplace program to support participating companies.
Launched the first Innovation Challenge to support BC companies developing clean energy technologies at technology readiness levels (TRL) 4 to 7.
Began design of the Integrated Energy Lab, which will support testing and evaluation of new technologies.
Secured lease for Integrated Energy Lab.
Built out the Integrated Energy Lab and installed lab equipment.
Innovation Challenge 1 begins