Backgrounder: Transalta Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Project

The TransAlta CCS project involves the development of a large-scale carbon capture and storage system attached to TransAlta’s Keephills 3 coal-fired power plant located near Edmonton.  It is estimated that up to one million tonnes of CO2 emissions will be captured and stored annually in wells 2.8 km deep below the surface near the plant.

This would be one of the world’s first large-scale CCS facilities and will perform several technological functions.  It would integrate leading-edge, post-combustion, chilled ammonia capture technology with a coal-fired power plant to capture CO2.  The CO2 would then be transported for use in enhanced oil recovery and to a permanent geological storage site, with the goal of demonstrating safe, secure, large-scale permanent storage in saline aquifers.

The Harper Government will invest $342.8 million in the project. Funding will be made available through the Clean Energy Fund ($315.8 million), and through the ecoENERGY Technology Initiative ($27 million).

As a major component in Canada’s Economic Action Plan, the $1-billion Clean Energy Fund is advancing Canada’s leadership in clean energy technologies and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from energy production.

The ecoENERGY Technology Initiative was launched in 2007 to help Canada strengthen its position as a world leader in clean energy technologies through an innovative partnership with the private sector.

The Government of Alberta is investing $436 million from the $2 billion Alberta CCS Fund established in 2008 to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

According to the Canada-Alberta ecoENERGY CCS Task Force report released in 2008, CCS technology could allow Canada to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 600 million tonnes a year by 2050 — an amount equal to almost three-quarters of Canada’s current annual emissions.

For more information on the Clean Energy Fund
http://cef-fep.nrcan.gc.ca

For more information on the ecoENERGY Technology Initiative http://ecoaction.gc.ca/ecoenergy-ecoenergie/index-eng.cfm

For more information on Alberta’s CCS Fund http://www.energy.gov.ab.ca/Initiatives/1438.asp

For more information on TransAlta’s CCS initiative
http://www.projectpioneer.ca

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