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What does it really take to bring a new technology to market?

Drawing on insights from more than 80 innovators and 136 commercialized ERA-funded projects, discover what drives success and what stands in the way.

What success looks like

What does commercialization achieve?

Jobs

Technologies create high-value employment across Alberta.

Investment

Public investment attracts private capital and builds investor confidence.

Market Growth

Alberta innovations are finding customers at home and around the world.

Environmental Impact

Commercialized technologies reduce emissions while strengthening competitiveness.

Commercialization success is about more than reaching the market. It creates jobs, attracts investment, grows Alberta companies and delivers measurable environmental benefits.

What successful innovators do differently

What did companies that succeeded learn?

Start with the end in mind

Know your customer before you build.

  • Demonstrate value early
  • Understand customer needs
  • Build partnerships
  • Plan for regulation
  • Reduce the Highest Risk Early

Reduce risk early

Address uncertainty before it becomes a barrier.

  • Secure financing
  • Validate performance
  • Prepare for scale
  • Build market confidence

Focus on what matters most

Invest time where it creates the greatest impact.

  • Better planning
  • Earlier pilots
  • Independent validation

What accelerates commercialization

What helps more technologies succeed?

Commercialization doesn’t happen by chance. Across sectors, innovators identified six actions that would have the greatest impact on helping technologies move from successful pilots to widespread adoption.

  • Connect innovators with industry
  • Define clear commercialization pathways
  • Coordinate deployment funding
  • Build commercialization skills
  • Improve access to testing infrastructure
  • Share success stories and lessons

WHERE ALBERTA HAS THE BIGGEST OPPORTUNITIES

Where can we improve?

Connect the funding dots

Funding exists but innovators need a smoother path from pilot to deployment.

Make commercialization support easier to find

Programs can’t create impact if innovators don’t know they exist.

Agree on what success looks like

Shared performance targets help technologies move from demonstration to adoption.

Move with the market

Align commercialization with emerging regulations so technologies are ready when demand grows.

NINE MOMENTS THAT SLOW COMMERCIALIZATION

What keeps promising technologies from reaching widespread adoption?

Commercialization isn’t stopped by one challenge. It slows when obstacles compound across the journey to market.

Funding

The challenge
Many technologies prove they work but can’t reach the market without funding to scale and demonstrate business value.
Why it matters
The gap between pilot funding and commercial deployment delays adoption and reduces investor confidence.

The Challenge
Limited access to early-stage capital prevents promising ideas from advancing to the point where they can attract larger investments.
Why it Matters
A healthy commercialization pipeline depends on a steady flow of new innovations. Without early support, fewer technologies reach the demonstration stage.

Market

The Challenge
Technologies can be proven and market-ready, but adoption stalls when operators face uncertain economics, inconsistent regulatory signals or unclear customer demand.

Why it Matters
Without confidence in market conditions, companies delay investment, customers postpone adoption, and promising technologies struggle to gain traction.

The Challenge
Many organizations prefer proven solutions over new technologies, waiting for others to demonstrate success before taking on operational risk.

Why it Matters
Even high-performing innovations can face years of delayed adoption while companies wait for reference projects and real-world proof.

Scale-Up

The Challenge
Commercial scale-up requires engineering expertise, manufacturing capability and project management skills that many innovators don’t yet have.

Why it Matters
Without the right expertise and resources, technologies that succeed in pilot projects can struggle to scale efficiently and cost-effectively.

The Challenge
Customers often require independent validation, certification and real-world performance data before adopting a new technology.

Why it Matters
Without trusted third-party validation, technologies face longer sales cycles and greater resistance from potential customers.

Ecosystem

The Challenge
Testing facilities and demonstration infrastructure exist, but innovators often struggle to find, access, or navigate them.

Why it Matters
Improving access to existing infrastructure could reduce costs, shorten development timelines, and accelerate commercialization.

The Challenge
Technology demonstrations often fail to engage the operational and business decision-makers responsible for purchasing and deployment.

Why it Matters
Successful demonstrations don’t automatically lead to commercial adoption unless they reach the people with the authority to implement new technologies.

The Challenge
Uncertain regulations, evolving carbon markets and lengthy approval processes make it difficult for companies and investors to plan with confidence.

Why it Matters
Greater policy certainty helps reduce investment risk, improve business planning and accelerate the commercialization of new technologies.

Innovation in action

Who is already proving what’s possible?

TransAlta Corporation

Enabling Increased Intermittent Green Generation via wind energy storage

Read more

RBW Waste Management

RBW HDPE Plastic Recycling

Read more

Qube Technologies

Emissions Reductions Through Artificial Intelligence 

Read more

Eavor

Eavor-Loop Demonstration Project

Read more

Canadian Pacific Railway Company

Hydrogen Locomotive Program 

Read more

COMMERCIALIZATION ISN’T A SINGLE MILESTONE—IT’S A JOURNEY.

Alberta innovators consistently point to the same ingredients for success: early customer engagement, strong partnerships, access to validation, coordinated funding and a clear path to market. By strengthening these areas, Alberta can accelerate the commercialization of the next generation of emissions-reducing technologies.

  1. Idea
  2. Pilot
  3. Demonstration
  4. Commercialization
  5. Market growth

“Commercialization isn’t a single moment—it’s a journey that requires capital, partnerships, validation and market demand.”

“ERA funding gave us the critical early-stage capital to move from prototype to commercial product. Thanks to ERA, we accelerated our technology readiness and secured our first major customers—years ahead of schedule.”

“With ERA’s support, we engaged early with industry partners and research collaborators, laying the foundation for a Joint Industry Project that will validate and accelerate commercialization.”

Commercialization by the numbers

The survey data provides a snapshot of the economic, environmental and market outcomes achieved by ERA-funded technologies.

Job creation

4297

Jobs

75%

Oil & gas and electricity

Key insight

Renewable energy, carbon capture, and methane management projects generate the highest levels of job creation across ERA’s portfolio.

Job creation by top 8 industries

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Job creation by top 8 technology areas

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Commercialization timeline

Average time to reach commercialization by top 8 technology areas

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Average time to reach commercialization by top 8 industries

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Key insight

Technologies with larger infrastructure requirements—such as CCUS and in situ recovery—typically take longer to commercialize, while methane technologies and efficiency improvements reach the market much faster.

Revenue

$3.6M

Average annual domestic revenue reported by surveyed companies.

$164M

Oil and gas technologies generated more than the combined total of all other industries surveyed.

Key insight

Methane management and efficiency improvement technologies generated the strongest average revenues among surveyed projects.

Domestic revenue by top 5 technology areas

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Domestic revenue by top 7 industries

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Markets

One-third of sales come from international markets.

Distribution of sales jurisdictions

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Investment

$1.2B

in public investment reported

$1.5B

in private investment reported

Did you know?

Public investment helps reduce commercialization risk and builds confidence among private investors.

THE BIGGER PICTURE

Commercialization creates more than new technologies. It creates jobs, attracts investment, builds Alberta companies and brings homegrown innovation to markets around the world.

Read the full report