Special Project

CERBA project

The aim of this project is to identify ways of achieving regulatory flexibility to remove the obstacles to the development of biofuel startups, and thus accelerate the energy transition in concrete terms, while preserving environmental and social standards.

Project description

Regulatory innovation for agricultural biomethanization

Quebec's Green Hydrogen and Bioenergy Strategy identifies biofuels as a key sector for achieving the province's carbon reduction targets. Yet, despite technological maturity and political support, biofuel startups face regulatory, economic and logistical hurdles that hinder their development and environmental potential.

In the first phase of the Entreprendre dans le secteur des biocarburants project, CÉRSÉ and its partners identified three main obstacles:

Biomass supply
Access to financing
Applying complex regulatory frameworks

For this second phase, the project focuses on regulatory issues, which are often rigid and decontextualized. While these rules are essential to protect the environment and communities, their strict application considerably increases the time and cost required to develop new plants, and makes some projects unfeasible. A more flexible approach, inspired by experience in France and Ontario, would accelerate the development of the sector while maintaining high standards of environmental and social protection.

Phase 2 objectives: CERBA

The project aims to accelerate biofuel entrepreneurship in Quebec, while ensuring the responsible and sustainable development of the sector.

Running from March 2026 to March 2027, phase 2 aims to create a regulatory innovation laboratory: CERBA (Cellule d'Expérimentation Réglementaire en Biométhanisation Agricole). This laboratory brings together project developers, legal and regulatory experts, municipal players and strategic groups in co-construction workshops.

These workshops aim to :

Prioritize and detail the regulatory reforms needed to develop agricultural biomethanization plants

Define a strategy for mobilizing stakeholders and approaching regulatory and public authorities

Identify potential risks to ecosystems and communities

Evaluate the savings in time and financial resources made possible by these reforms

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