If you’re a UK cleantech business looking beyond Europe to establish an international foothold, the City of Summerside, in Canada’s Price Edward Island PEI, represents the perfect base: a testbed for innovation that is the heartbeat of Canada’s cleantech sector and an open door to the rest of the North American market. And on Thursday 28 April from 16.00 to 17.20 UK time, an expert panel will be sharing their experiences in an online seminar on how you can achieve your growth ambitions by joining the fast-growing community with a business or test base there.

The organisers are Cambridge Cleantech, the UK-based collaborative network, which connects innovators, corporates, academics, SMEs and investors looking to achieve a more sustainable future. Summerside has made itself a North American case study for smart grids, information technology and adaptive technologies, advancing innovation in a range of fields crucial to the planet’s future. Specific advantages for cleantech businesses establishing a base there include:

• City of Summerside is the cleantech centre at heart of Canada’s “Green Province”;
• An established support infrastructure which makes it a testbed for trialling renewable energy sources;
• A “Living Lab” testbed and “Xchange Accelerator” which gives innovators a kickstart to their ambitions;
• Government takes an active lead by testing innovations, collaborating with the private sector, providing competitive incentives and offering space at the island’s world-class eco-business park. 

Comments Bill Fraser, which represents the City of Summerside in the UK: “With over 70% of the city’s energy coming from renewable sources and with a municipally-owned electric utility readily available to trial innovations, Summerside is the perfect go-to-market partner for testing, validating and commercializing clean technologies.

“There is a ready-made and highly qualified skills base, a supportive cleantech community and a fantastic quality of life.

“The companies we have introduced there,” he adds, “have received a really warm welcome: Summerside understands the challenges that companies face when looking to grow and break into new markets and it supports ventures as they seek to scale up their enterprise or trial them in a new market.” General admission for the event is just £10, bookable through this link. Equally, anyone wanting to find out more about the event or Summerside can contact me direct.