We know that the carbon capture and storage (CCS) facility at SaskPower鈥檚 Boundary Dam Power Station is a marvel. But sometimes those outside of the southeast need a reminder.
The world-leading CCS facility attained another milestone last week when it reached four million tonnes of captured carbon dioxide (CO2). If you crunch the numbers, it鈥檚 more than 51,000 tonnes of CO2 a month in the 78 months that it鈥檚 been operating.
In environmental circles, they talk a lot about taking an equivalent number of vehicles off the road. Well, four million tonnes of CO2 is equivalent to a lot of vehicles.
The CCS facility has not just meant a lot to our community, but it鈥檚 meant a lot to the environment.
It hasn鈥檛 always been an easy road for SaskPower or for the Boundary Dam CCS project. For starters, it鈥檚 not easy when you change the world. It鈥檚 not easy when you try to be the first at something. It鈥檚 a lot easier when you take an existing, proven concept and add it to your power generation fleet.
Once it came online in October 2014, the CCS facility had challenges. It spent a lot of time offline due to the bugs that had to be worked out with its technology and innovation. When it was online, it worked. But there were changes that had to be made.
And there are adaptations that continue to be made as SaskPower looks for ways to improve efficiency.
It is worth noting that it鈥檚 been online at least 80 per cent of the time eight of the past 13 months. When it hasn鈥檛 been online, it鈥檚 usually due to a scheduled shutdown.
This is a project that鈥檚 going to be a lightning rod for criticism in some circles, because it uses coal as a power source, and the captured carbon dioxide is then sold to oilfield companies to be used in enhanced oil recovery efforts. Even if the CCS facility was online 100 per cent of the time, and it never required a shutdown, and it captured a million tonnes of CO2 a year, it would have its critics because of its connections to coal and the oilfield.
Coal-fired power generation using CCS needs to remain part of Saskatchewan鈥檚 power production fleet. For starters, if we don鈥檛 further invest in CCS, then we essentially have a billion-dollar stand-alone at one of our coal-fired power plants. And a coal mining company isn鈥檛 going to spend all the money it takes to mine that coal for one solitary unit.
Further investment into CCS elsewhere in the Estevan area is needed to keep Unit 3 going.
Coal is still our best bet for baseload power. Conventional and compliant coal power鈥檚 days are numbered. But when you can mine the coal, apply some sort of technology to eliminate the emissions, you get the option to keep coal going.
Natural gas doesn鈥檛 provide the same level of cost reliability as coal. If the forecasts are true and natural gas is going to finally experience a price increase, then that will impact natural gas鈥� competitiveness.
As for renewables, we know that solar and wind aren鈥檛 at the point, yet, where they can be a baseload power option.
I take a keen interest in the reports on the CCS facility that SaskPower files each month. I鈥檓 excited when I see numbers like February, when CCS was online 96 per cent of the time, and captured 67,699 tonnes. And I鈥檓 disappointed when it doesn鈥檛 have a good month, in part because I know the critics will use the numbers as ammunition. (They usually won鈥檛 mention the good months, which now vastly outnumber the bad).
And I鈥檓 very happy to see the CCS facility eclipse milestones such as four million tonnes of captured CO2.
I look forward to when we hit five million. I hope that the Shand Power Station and Unit 6 at the Boundary Dam Power Station will be retrofitted with CCS technology, giving them the chance to hit milestones and further develop the CCS story in Estevan.
I hope famed American entrepreneur and innovator Elon Musk will come to Estevan, view our CCS facility, see how effective it can be, and take what he learns and apply it to his quest to support a great CCS project.
And I want to see people recognize how CCS can make a better environment.
