Alberta Carbon Grid advances CCS hub proposal

The Alberta Carbon Grid (ACG), a joint undertaking by TC Energy and Pembina Pipeline, said October 18 it had entered into a carbon sequestration evaluation agreement with the government of Alberta.

The evaluation agreement, the first announced by a project proponent in the first round of Alberta’s request for full project proposals (RFPPs) to develop carbon capture and storage (CCS) hubs, targets the CO₂ storage capabilities of an area of interest (AOI) spanning some 900,000 hectares north of Edmonton.

“The world is facing a huge challenge when it comes to energy security and transitioning to cleaner energy and we believe the Alberta Carbon Grid will play a critical role in helping achieve emissions reductions goals in Canada,” said Lindsay Mackay, vice president, non-regulated commercial and business development Canadian gas pipelines at TC Energy. “We’re excited to achieve this milestone with the government and continue our path to becoming industry leaders in the energy transition and providing solutions to our customers.” 

The area ACG is looking at for sequestration is considered an ideal location because of its proven deep porous geological formations and ability to provide decades of storage capacity. With the evaluation agreement in place, ACG will be able to further examine the subsurface properties of the AOI to prove those properties.

ACG was among six projects identified in Alberta’s first round of CCS RFPPs, all of which are intended to provide open access to carbon storage, accepting emissions from any interested industries.

It will be developed in phases, with the first phase, the Alberta Industrial Heartland project, providing the potential to capture and store up to 10mn metric tons/year of CO₂ when fully developed. Future phases would see the development of multiple hubs around the province, together adding another 10mn mt/yr of sequestration capacity.

“We believe that the Alberta Carbon Grid is a transformational project for Alberta and will help Canada reach its ambitious target of net zero by 2050,” said Fabrizio Chiacchia, vice president, new ventures at Pembina. “We have an amazing opportunity to lead the way and are excited to work together with industry, government, and stakeholders to reduce emissions and develop new technologies along the way.”

Learn more about the Alberta Carbon Grid here.