· 3 min read
illuminem summarises for you the essential news of the day. Read the full piece on POLITICO or enjoy below:
🗞️ Driving the news: North America’s first direct air capture (DAC) facility to permanently store carbon underground has begun operations in Alberta, Canada
• The Alpha project, operated by Deep Sky, is currently designed to remove up to 250 metric tons of CO₂ annually and will scale to 3,000 metric tons
• The plant also serves as a testbed for ten DAC technologies under consideration for future large-scale deployment
🔭 The context: While smaller in capacity than Iceland’s Climeworks-led DAC projects, Alpha is the first of its kind in North America to integrate capture with permanent geological storage
• Deep Sky, a Canadian startup, aims to position itself as a regional leader in carbon removal and is already planning two commercial-scale sites
• The initiative reflects growing global interest in DAC as part of net-zero strategies, particularly in carbon-intensive economies like Canada
🌍 Why it matters for the planet: Carbon removal is increasingly recognised as essential to achieving climate goals, particularly for offsetting hard-to-abate emissions
• Alpha’s pilot-scale operations help validate DAC’s feasibility under Canadian conditions and explore scalability across technologies
• However, the sector faces challenges around cost, energy use, and infrastructure for permanent storage
⏭️ What's next: Deep Sky will evaluate the performance of the ten DAC technologies in Alpha to determine which are most viable for commercial rollout
• Two larger facilities are already in development, with selected technologies expected to move into deployment phases by 2026
• The company’s approach may influence how Canada scales its carbon removal strategy and shapes future policy and investment frameworks
💬 One quote: “We will be down selecting specific technologies, which are more suitable for commercialization for our next projects.” – Alex Petre, CEO of Deep Sky
📈 One stat: Alpha’s full capacity of 3,000 metric tons of CO₂ per year is equivalent to the annual emissions of approximately 700 gasoline-powered vehicles (EPA data)
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