Canada’s largest carbon capture project breaks ground in central Alberta

illuminem summarises for you the essential news of the day, reviewed by our editorial team. Read the full piece on CBC News or enjoy below:

🗞️ Driving the news: Enhance Energy broke ground Wednesday on Origins, Canada's largest carbon capture and storage hub, near Clive in central Alberta
• Operations are slated to begin in January with initial capacity to store 1.5 million tonnes of CO2 annually, equivalent to removing about 500,000 cars from the road, per federal figures

🔭 The context: The hub connects to the $1.2-billion Alberta Carbon Trunk Line, which currently carries emissions from a Redwater fertilizer plant and the Sturgeon Refinery to mature oil reservoirs
• Enhance Energy has operated a CCS site at Clive since 2020 and says it has permanently stored more than nine million tonnes to date

🌍 Why it matters for the planet: The National Farmers Union warns that CCS storage could leak and dissolve CO2 into groundwater, causing acidification with risks to land and livestock, citing Queensland's ban on carbon capture in its largest groundwater basin
• Energy Minister Tim Hodgson rejects the comparison, calling Alberta's geology exceptional and the technology proven

⏭️ What's next: Enhance Energy sees significant expansion potential as further emitters connect
• Alberta selected several hub proposals in 2022, with Origins among the first to reach groundbreaking

💬 One quote: "As we look toward net zero by 2050, there will not be one technology or one source of energy that gets us there. We will build more conventional energy done the right way, and we will build with technologies like carbon capture and storage" — Tim Hodgson, federal Minister of Energy and Natural Resources

📈 One stat: 1.5 million tonnes of CO2 stored annually at initial capacity, with over nine million tonnes stored at the existing Clive site since 2020.

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