Estevan Mayor Roy Ludwig is surprised with the response from the public and the media since it was announced that the City of Estevan had invited famed entrepreneur Elon Musk to the Energy City to view the carbon capture and storage (CCS) facilities in the area.听
Musk, who is the founder of Tesla, Space X and other ventures, has been ranked as the richest person in the world. Earlier this year, Musk announced that he would provide $100 million to whoever came up with the best carbon capture project, which was the catalyst for the city to invite Musk here.听
The world鈥檚 first fully integrated and full-chain CCS facility on a coal-fired power plant can be found at the Boundary Dam Power Station, and it has captured more than 3.8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide since it came online in October 2014. A carbon capture test facility can be found at the nearby Shand Power Station.听
Musk, whose mother was born in Regina, spent a few weeks working on a farm in Saskatchewan when he was a teenager in 1989. He has yet to respond to the city鈥檚 offer, but Ludwig is optimistic the famed innovator will come.
Since it became public last week, Ludwig has been on the phone regularly, fielding calls from media outlets and others interested in the city鈥檚 invite.听
鈥淗is name causes a lot of conversation back and forth, and it鈥檚 been great the amount of feedback and discussion that this has caused in the last few days,鈥� Ludwig told the Mercury.听
Most of the provincial media outlets have reached out to him, and he has also had calls from reporters elsewhere in Western Canada. 听
The publicity alone has been good to highlight the fact that the city would like to see the Shand Power Station and Unit 6 at the Boundary Dam Power Station retrofitted with CCS technology, which Ludwig said would be more affordable than the retrofit of Unit 3 at Boundary Dam.听
鈥淎 lot of people are phoning and asking about CCS, and what does that mean,鈥� said Ludwig.
The mayor noted that a prominent Canadian businessman with a private jet has offered Ludwig use of that jet if Musk wants Estevan鈥檚 mayor to travel to the U.S. for a visit. 听
鈥淗e said he would pick me up with his private jet in Estevan, and fly me wherever Mr. Musk 鈥� would be, and fly me back. I was pretty impressed with that offer,鈥� 听Ludwig said.
Ludwig stressed a face-to-face visit with Musk would not happen until the restrictions on non-essential cross-border traffic are lifted.听听听
People who Ludwig has spoken with locally have also supported the campaign. The Estevan Chamber of Commerce, the economic development board, the local media and others have all done their part in getting the word out.
鈥淚t鈥檚 just a case of our community coming together and trying to do what鈥檚 best for the community. It鈥檚 nice to see,鈥� the mayor said.
The city would love to have Musk come and tour Boundary Dam and Shand, as well as the local coal mines, and to put a positive light on what they鈥檙e doing here from an environmental perspective. The city wants to see CCS technology further deployed, because it would sustain a lot of good-paying jobs for both SaskPower and local coal mines.听
鈥淚 think us, as local politicians, have to work very hard through our 小蓝视频, through our MP, and all of the groups that I鈥檝e mentioned, such as the chamber and the economic development board,鈥� said Ludwig.
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