The Innovative Clean Energy Fund was created in 2007 to encourage the development of new sources of clean energy and technologies to help support local economies and livelihoods in communities across B.C.
The ICE Fund:
- Addresses energy and environmental priorities identified by government
- Showcases technologies that solve problems in B.C. and other jurisdictions and that have international market potential
- Supports “pre-commercial” energy technology or commercial technologies not currently used in B.C., and
- Demonstrates the commercial viability of new energy technologies.
Two calls for application to the ICE Fund have resulted in ICE Fund contributions of about $47 million to 34 projects in communities across B.C. These projects represent a total value of over $174 million and showcase a variety of clean energy technologies including solar, wind, tidal, geothermal, ocean wave and bioenergy.
The $25 million a year ICE Fund is collected through a 0.4 per cent levy on final sales of electricity, natural gas, fuel oil, propane and any other product prescribed by regulation as an energy product.
Transportation fuels including gasoline and diesel are exempt from the ICE Fund levy.
The levy is assessed on residential, commercial and industrial customers. On average, a family will pay about $3 a year for the levy on electricity, $5 a year on natural gas, and $8 a year on fuel oil.
There is a $100,000 cap per year for industrial customers.
The governance committee comprises senior government and external representatives to ensure the fund’s mandate is fullfilled.
Committee Members Biographies
