Canada has always run on water. In the 19th-century, thousands of communities developed around the textile, grist and saw mills that harnessed water power from rivers. Today, hydro generates about 60 percent of the country’s electricity. But as demand strains the grid more with each passing year, could the dams that once served those now-dormant mills provide a new source of power? That’s the vision of Andrew Murray and his startup, Aslan Renewables. During COVID lockdowns, Murray went on long walks with his father throughout rural P.E.I., where his father pointed out the untapped potential of the dams they passed. Murray seized on the idea and developed a compact, modular turbine system that used the elevation of these dams to generate reliable, clean energy. In this episode, Murray discusses our current energy crisis, why small-scale local power generation is so vital and how he’s transforming timeworn infrastructure into a technology of the future.

Featured in this episode:

Andrew Murray is the founder and CEO of Aslan Renewables. He was previously co-owner of the Shelby Water Group, a ship chandlery and logistics company, and CEO of Broadside9, a global customer acquisition agency. In 2025, Aslan was recognized as a leader in energy-transition innovation at the Climate Impact Innovation Challenge in Singapore.

Further reading:

P.E.I. power customers could see rotating outages to prevent total blackouts this winter
Blackout: Canada’s impending electricity crisis and how to fix it
Milling through history
What if thousands of unused dams in Canada could generate power again?
Could Trump risk century-old Canada-U.S. electricity system?

Solve for X is brought to you by MaRS, North America’s largest urban innovation hub and a registered charity. MaRS supports startups and accelerates the adoption of high-impact solutions to some of the world’s biggest challenges. For more information, visit marsdd.com.

Recent advances in AI have fundamentally changed how we predict the weather, making forecasting cheaper, faster and better — we can now track even the most unusual weather event with almost pinpoint accuracy. Such accuracy has never been more urgent. With climate change making weather more extreme, unpredictable and dangerous, knowing how much rain a storm may bring, or how long a drought could last, can be a matter of life and death. In this episode, we explore this quiet revolution in forecasting, why this knowledge must also drive policy change and, in the face of growing water shortages, how AI is helping us tap an unexpected new source.

Featured in this episode:

Pedram Hassanzadeh is an associate professor in the department of geophysical sciences at the University of Chicago and director of the AI for Climate Initiative at the Data Science Institute.

Catherine Nakalembe is an assistant professor in the University of Maryland’s department of geographical sciences, founder of the Xylem Lab and the Africa program director for NASA Harvest.

Tatiana Estevez is the founder and CEO of Permalution, a startup working on fog water collection technology and climate adaptation solutions.

Further reading:

Forecasting the future: The role of artificial intelligence in transforming weather prediction and policy

Designing probabilistic AI monsoon forecasts to inform agricultural decision-making

AI can predict disaster, but it can’t save you

Seeds of impact: Catherine Nakalembe’s trailblazing path

Fight Canada’s water shortage with fog

Permalution: transforming fog into water for climate adaptation
The end of the European summer

Subscribe to Solve for X: Innovations to Change the World here. And below, find a transcript to “The coming storm.”

Solve for X is brought to you by MaRS, North America’s largest urban innovation hub and a registered charity. MaRS supports startups and accelerates the adoption of high-impact solutions to some of the world’s biggest challenges. For more information, visit marsdd.com.

Episode summary: The head-spinning ascent of AI is a story of scientific innovation, but it’s also, fundamentally, a story about money. Between 2013 and 2024, AI netted about U.S.$1.6 trillion of global corporate and private investment; it’s estimated that by the end of this year that number will reach U.S.$2.5 trillion. How this massive investment is transforming — and will transform — the way we live and work is a matter of fierce debate and great uncertainty. One person at the centre of this technological and economic maelstrom is Pillar VC’s Leah Morris. She’s the executive director of Pillar’s Encode: AI for Science fellowship, which provides AI researchers the time, freedom and resources to build meaningful, game-changing solutions. In this bonus episode, she discusses how new technologies are exacerbating economic inequality, the enduring value of human judgment and how the AI investment landscape is too often, in her words, “bullshit in a bull ring.”

Featured in this episode:

Leah Morris is executive director of the Encode: AI for Science fellowship at Pillar VC. She was previously a senior director at Radical Ventures, where she oversaw the firm’s responsible AI strategy and managed research partnerships. Her background includes economic AI research at the University of Toronto and experience in global health and security with the United Nations and through nonprofit work in Jamaica and South Africa.

Further reading:

The next great divergence: Why AI may widen inequality between countries

The man behind AlphaGo thinks AI is taking the wrong path

How London became the rest of the world’s startup capital

Universal basic income, the utopia idea resurging in Silicon Valley

How AI is transforming scientific discovery while keeping humans at the centre

Solve for X is brought to you by MaRS, North America’s largest urban innovation hub and a registered charity. MaRS supports startups and accelerates the adoption of high-impact solutions to some of the world’s biggest challenges. For more information, visit marsdd.com.