Natural Resources committee That's a good question. I focus on what we call next-generation biofuels, which use cellulosic material, so that's agricultural waste, forestry waste, construction waste—non-food based sources—converted into ethanol. I've never looked at food-based biofuels for that reason.
May 9th, 2017Committee meeting
Tom Rand
Natural Resources committee You can use it to make electricity if you like, but it's more valuable as a liquid fuel. From a technological point of view, liquid fuels are harder to replace and there is more economic value in a liquid fuel than there is in the same amount of energy in the form of electricity.
May 9th, 2017Committee meeting
Tom Rand
Natural Resources committee The carbon dioxide production, woodland being the example, is a 92% reduction in carbon dioxide compared to the gasoline it replaces, and that takes into account the full life cycle.
May 9th, 2017Committee meeting
Tom Rand
Natural Resources committee The link is project finance. Large bits of infrastructure get built on debt. They don't get built on equity. Venture capital just does not have the scale. It's not the right asset class to build a $250-million biofuels plant. You need project finance for that. It's just not appro
May 9th, 2017Committee meeting
Tom Rand
Natural Resources committee They do have a mandate to put that capital into clean tech, and I think there is a fairly robust definition of “clean tech” coming down the pipe along with that capital. The challenge is, again, that they don't follow the market. They have to make the market, which means they hav
May 9th, 2017Committee meeting
Tom Rand
Natural Resources committee Very quickly, here's some background. Back in 2006 you could count the venture capital firms in North America that invested in clean tech. There were probably 300. I can count them in North America now, and there are probably about six that focus on clean tech. In Canada, there a
May 9th, 2017Committee meeting
Tom Rand
Natural Resources committee Thank you for the opportunity to speak. I'm Tom Rand. I'm a senior adviser here at MaRS in their clean tech group, and I'm also the managing partner of ArcTern Ventures, which is a privately backed venture fund that invests directly in clean energy technology companies. I'm goi
May 9th, 2017Committee meeting
Tom Rand