Page 15 - SD_NG_BC

Copyright © 2014 by SDTC™ Sustainable Development Business Case 9

3.3 Structure of Report

This report includes eight key sections, including the following:

Background

Details historical natural gas consumption in Canada, as well as future trends and drivers.

Applicant Technologies for SDTC Funding

SDTC solicits Statements of Interest (SOI) from the technology development community for projects that could receive funding. SDTC retains this unique data in their proprietary data base, and it forms a national snapshot of the state of emerging sustainable technologies in the downstream natural gas sector in Canada.

Industry Vision

The Vision Statement developed for the downstream natural gas sector assesses environmental benefits associated with the commercialization of new technologies within the sector. It is important to note that the individual sub-sector Vision Statements are based on input from the industry stakeholders, and in this regard, only serves to compile and interpret stakeholder responses.

Needs Assessment

In order for the vision to be achieved, there are a number of needs that must first be satisfied. Some refer to technological improvements that must be made while others refer to financial, political, or regulatory issues that must be resolved. There are two types of needs, technical (i.e. technology innovation, development and demonstration needs) and non-technical (policy and market needs). This section describes the specific needs of each sub-sector and their relative importance.

Market Assessment

This section focuses on the ability of the market to use the emerging technologies that are currently at the development and demonstration stages. It identifies what needs to be done in order to maximize the application and acceptance of the technology, with a focus on financial and economic performance.

Technology Assessment

This section analyzes priority technology needs that were identified as having the potential to contribute to emission reduction goals as described in the vision. While there are numerous emerging technologies that may contribute to achieving the sub-sector vision, only the priority technologies identified using the criteria in the STAR™ model are considered in this section.

Investment Priorities

This section categorizes priority technologies identified in the Technology Assessment into two types of investment groups that are considered in the SD Business Case: Near Term and Longer Term. They reflect the current stage of development of the various technologies and the expected time and magnitude of potential investment required to bring them to the market.

National Strategy Impacts

This section highlights the most important non-technical needs identified in the STAR™ analysis and proposes concrete policy strategies for enabling the diffusion of the identified sub-sector technology priorities into the Canadian market.