Innovacorp has received 65 entries for its CleanTech Open competition, more than doubling the Nova Scotian innovation agency’s internal target of 30.

Innovacorp has said it wants to find the best cleantech entrepreneurs in the world and encourage them to set up businesses in the province, so the competition is open to people with great ideas and business plans anywhere.

Though most of the entrants were from Nova Scotia, the competition did succeed in drawing competitors from as far away as China. The final tally is 48 Canadian entries, about 80% of which came from Nova Scotia. There were nine entries from the U.S., three from Europe, four from the Caribbean and one from China.

Thomas Rankin, the Innovacorp exec in charge of the project, said he could not comment on the quality of the submissions because he has only seen the list of names. He and the other organizers plan to begin digging into the submissions next week.

The CleanTech Open winner will receive $100,000 in cash, a $200,000 negotiable seed investment, mentoring, and in-kind business building services, including one-year free rent  at the Innovacorp Enterprise Centre in Halifax. The deadline for submissions was last Thursday and the winner will be announced in April.