Alberta Carbon Grid (ACG) has announced that TC Energy and Pembina Pipeline (Pembina) have entered into a carbon sequestration evaluation agreement with the Government of Alberta (GoA). The agreement will further evaluate one of the largest Areas of Interest (AOI) for safely storing carbon from industrial emissions in Alberta.
It will also allow the ACG to move forward into the next phase of the province’s Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CCUS) process to provide confidence to customers, indigenous communities, stakeholders and government in the project’s carbon storage capabilities.
“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, TC Energy.
“We’re excited to achieve this milestone with the GoA and continue our path to becoming industry leaders in the energy transition and providing solutions to our customers.”
ACG has secured the rights to evaluate over 900,000 hectares of premiere land north of Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, that could potentially support a variety of customers throughout the province, especially those in the Industrial Heartland region.
The project’s AOI is considered an ideal CO2 storage location because of its proven deep porous geological formations and ability to handle decades of storage capacity. Based on ACG’s preliminary analysis, there’s confidence in the geological characteristics within the AOI as an excellent long-term and permanent CO2 storage option. The evaluation agreement will allow ACG to further examine the subsurface properties and qualities to prove this.
As an open-access system, ACG is intended to attract customers of all sizes and industries, including oil and gas producers, refineries, petrochemical plants and agricultural manufacturers. ACG looks forward to connecting and working with potential customers across Alberta to meet their carbon sequestration needs.
ACG will be developed in phases, the first being the Alberta Industrial Heartland project, which will have the potential capability of transporting and storing up to 10 million tonnes of CO2 annually when fully developed. Beyond that, ACG will look to grow and expand through multiple storage hubs to up to 20 million tonnes of CO2 annually throughout Alberta, which would be equivalent to removing 7.5 million cars off the road each year.
“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, 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.”
For more information visit albertacarbongrid.ca
