Greenlight for Canadian CCS project
4 May 2011
Saskatchewan, Canada – The Government of Saskatchewan has approved construction of the Boundary Dam Integrated Carbon Capture and Storage Demonstration project - among the first commercial-scale carbon capture and storage facilities in the world.
The $1.24 billion project will transform an aging generating unit at Boundary Dam Power Station near Estevan into a producer of reliable, clean electricity while reducing greenhouse gas emissions by about 1,000ktpa, and capture CO2 for enhanced oil recovery.
Energy company SaskPower has chosen SNC Lavalin to oversee detailed engineering, procurement and construction activities at the Boundary Dam project.
Cansolv, part of Shell Global Solutions, will supply the carbon capture process. Hitachi will supply a state-of-the-art steam turbine - the first in the world designed to fully integrate a coal-fired power plant with carbon capture technology.
Construction on the project will begin immediately, with operations commencing in 2014. The new generating unit at Boundary Dam will have the capacity to generate 110MW of electricity.
In addition to capturing CO2 for enhanced oil recovery operations, the Boundary Dam project will also capture sulfur dioxide to be used in the production of sulphuric acid.
Boundary Dam Power Station is SaskPower’s largest generating facility, with six units and a combined generating capacity of 824 MW. The company’s three coal-fired power plants account for approximately 50% of its generating capacity of 3,513 MW.
SaskPower has a total available generating capacity of 3,982MW when the production of independent power producers is taken into account.
The CCS demo project is part of a capital program that will see billions of dollars invested in SaskPower’s power production and transmission and distribution systems over the next decade.
