Brian Zinchuk is editor and owner of Pipeline Online
With the prospects of additional carbon capture on coal-fired power now diminished, the Boundary Dam Unit 3 capture plant might end up being the only one of its kind in this province. Photo by Brian Zinchuk
Saskatchewan has already spent $1.6 billion on carbon capture at Boundary Dam, but it looks like that’s not good enough, post 2030
SASKATOON, REGINA – The future of carbon capture and storage on Saskatchewan’s coal and natural gas power plants may be in jeopardy, according to Premier Scott Moe.
During his Monday visit to a rare earth element facility in Saskatoon, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made allusions that the Saskatchewan government was not doing enough on clean electricity, saying, “We also know there’s work to be done on encouraging the Government of Saskatchewan to see the opportunities that companies and indeed workers are seeing in a clean, cleaner jobs in the opportunities for get cleaner energy project projects. These are things that we’re going to continue to work on.”
According to SaskPower’s Where Your Power Comes From web page, on Jan. 15, 42 per cent of Saskatchewan’s power came from natural gas (1,391 megawatts), 41 per cent coal (1,357 megawatts), 12 per cent hydro (398 megawatts), and just 1 per cent from wind (23 megawatts). Solar was negligible at 1 megawatt, and “other” produced 3 per cent, at 109 megawatts. Nearly a decade ago Saskatchewan had also spent $1.6 billion on the Integrated Boundary Dam Unit 3 Integrated Carbon Capture and Storage Project.
Moe was asked about this in a press conference in Regina, and his answer laid out what appears to be new timelines with respect to both coal and natural gas power production, as well as the future, or lack thereof, for both that and carbon capture. He noted that even using carbon capture and storage would not be enough to satisfy the federal government for both coal and natural gas.
Power generation in Saskatchewan on Jan. 15, averaged throughout the day. Total system demand was 3,130 megawatts, and total generation was 3,279 megawatts. An average of 149 megawatts were exported. SaskPower
Moe said of Trudeau’s comment, “I think that’s a disingenuous statement, quite frankly, and an uneducated statement, quite frankly.”
Referring to nuclear power development, Moe said, “Do we have some work to do? And we’re doing the planning, right now, with respect to our electric electricity grid. And we’ve signed a Memorandum of Understanding. We’ve been working with other provinces, on how we are going to repower our electrical sector here in this province due to regulations that are coming down.
“The first of them coming into place in 2030 that will say not only can you not burn coal to generate electricity in Saskatchewan or in Canada, but even coal that has carbon capture and storage on it will not meet the criteria that the federal government has.
“And so essentially coal, of all types, will be banned by 2030. Further (by) 2035, now with the Clean Electricity Standard, natural gas, whether it has CCS or not, will also be banned by the year 2035.
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“And so, these are the standards that we are working within. And most certainly, we are putting together our plan right now on how we’re going to replace some of that capacity that we have in this province to ensure that we have what will be much lower carbon electric electrical grid into the future.”
Asked about the Saskatchewan First Act in this regard, which references development of natural resources and speaks about power generation and environmental regulations regarding related greenhouse gas emissions, Moe said, “It builds on the white paper platform that we had released earlier. And some of this is an example of some of the policy differences that the Province of Saskatchewan has with the federal government. We most certainly are moving into the space of lowering our emissions, increasing our opportunities for sequestration.
“We agree with achieving net zero by 2050. That most certainly isn’t going to be a challenge for this province, when you consider what we’re doing in agriculture, when you consider the investments that are being made in the mining industry, or the oil industry, quite frankly. And as I say, we produce some of the most sustainable products in the world. And so, the way to promote those sustainably-produced products around the world is to talk about them and to develop policy that is going to allow those products to increase, not only the volume and their availability to the world, but to continue to increase the investments that are being made to make them even more sustainable into the future.
“And that is what the Saskatchewan First Act is protecting, our ability to develop the very resources that that that the province most certainly has been working with and working to attract that investment into Saskatchewan.
“And I would say that recipe for success is working, we are seeing still yet additional investments, significant investments into the potash industry. We see the uranium industry, which is in a position of strength. We see, most certainly, the agriculture industry, where we are leading the nation. And here’s an example of producing sustainable products. Our canola and wheat in this province are produced on a per tonne basis with 65 per cent less carbon content than our competitors around the world. When it comes to field peas we’re 92 per cent lower.
“We have a great story to tell and Saskatchewan in agriculture and mining and energy production are most certainly going to rival that story with the coming rare earth elements processing facility out of Saskatoon and how we will really center that, that investment in around that city right here in this province. And so, the Saskatchewan First Act is here to protect that opportunity for our children and ultimately our children’s children.”
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