Sandra Moore is driving change as she works to launch PEI's Cleantech Innovation Centre.
Moore is the inaugural Director of Cleantech Innovation on PEI and has been since her appointment in June 2023. Originally from Western Canada, she has over 15 years of experience in the cleantech industry. Moore began her career in 2009 working with a group of students in Vanuatu, a small chain of islands in the South Pacific Ocean, selling solar lights. From there, Moore took her talents to Alberta, where she worked as a consultant on several solar and wind projects.
After finishing her consulting work, she became the dean in the Faculty of Business, Environment, and Technology at Norquest College in Edmonton. During her time at the school, she helped create a program focused on the business side of energy.
In her brief time as the director of Cleantech Innovation, Moore has overseen the opening and operation of the Cleantech Innovation Centre (CIC). Although the centre has yet to be built, plans are well underway to make it the optimum space for educating and producing the next generation of Cleantech scholars on Prince Edward Island.
Moore said she hopes the facility becomes a “collision space" for individuals who have similar or shared interests in Cleantech.
“The facility is going to be in Georgetown, PEI. And Georgetown is a phenomenal place to put the Cleantech Innovation Centre because you’ve got one of the deepest harbors and you’ve got phenomenal organizations like Aspin Kemp and Associates and Frontier Power Systems already in the vicinity,” she said.
“Inside the building will be the Cleantech Academy. So, you'll have faculty, researchers, and students from post-secondary institutions. You'll have government employees from energy and behind there, you've got the Cleantech Park.”
As well, there will be industry partners at the facility who are working in Cleantech, she said.
Because Cleantech is a new industry on the Island, many residents are curious about what it is or what the future holds. Therefore, the Cleantech Innovation Centre is one of the ways Moore, along with the Government of PEI, is working to educate and raise awareness about this new energy concept.
Once the Cleantech Innovation Centre is built, it will be home to the Cleantech Academy. It will be the cornerstone of the growing cleantech industry in PEI. Launching in 2025, the facility will bring together scholars from the Island’s largest post-secondary schools: the University of Prince Edward Island and Holland College, and officials from the Government of PEI. At the site, those scholars and experts will work in collaboration to create solutions to further the work done on PEI around cleantech.
Through the work done at the Cleantech Academy, PEI hopes to create the next generation of cleantech changemakers, thus becoming a leader in the industry at a global level.
“We’ve got two programs that are coming out in the next two years or so; the postgraduate certificate in Sustainable Business Leadership, and then [the] master’s degree in Cleantech Leadership. Both of those programs are focused on creating the leaders that we need to be able to help drive this transition and change on Prince Edward Island, working with industry [and] working collaboratively across multiple initiatives,” said Moore.
“We're focused on professional development. We're focused on learning...and creating the people that the province needs to really drive Net Zero forward.”
