Emissions Reduction Alberta (ERA) – the venture capital & private equity body of Alberta that aims to help deliver emissions reductions, has launched a $30 million carbon capture funding opportunity to drive the scale-up of CO2 capture and transportation technology solutions in the province.
The program called the Carbon Capturing Kickstart: Design and Engineering call is a competition that will accept applications of projects focused on site-specific carbon capture, direct air capture, and carbon transportation infrastructure.
It will aim to support pre-construction work on the projects, using cash from the Technology, Innovation and Emissions Reduction (TIER) fund, Alberta’s carbon tax on large greenhouse-gas emitters.
The proposals it targets should also address the reduction of emissions in industrial sectors including power generation, cement production, manufacturing, and oil and gas. Ideally, they must cut emissions of specific large final sites in Alberta.
According to the Environment and Parks Minister Jason Nixon that has pre-recorded himself in a video, a federal capital investment tax credit has been promised for this year, as large facility operators have called for more support to de-risk hefty up-front investments in carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS) projects.
ERA will manage the carbon capture funding that will support feasibility studies, engineering and design work. Each individual carbon capture project is eligible for up to $7.5 million that must be matched by private investment. The deadline for applicants is the 3rd of March 2022, and recipients will be announced in the summer.
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According to the CEO of ERA Steve MacDonald, increasing decarbonization efforts is key to reaching net-zero emissions in the energy sector, and will encourage collaboration between industries to develop further technology and applications.
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