Enhance Energy breaks ground on Canada’s largest carbon capture project

The tiny central Alberta village of Clive is set to become home to Canada’s largest carbon capture project, after Enhance Energy Inc. broke ground Wednesday on its Origins project.

With operations slated to begin in January, the Origins carbon capture and storage (CCS) hub will initially have capacity to permanently store up to 1.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually. That’s roughly the equivalent of taking more than 500,000 cars off the road each year, and the hub will be able to expand over time.

Enhance Energy is no stranger to carbon capture, a technology that traps the carbon dioxide produced by burning fossil fuels before it is released to the atmosphere.

The company already operates Alberta’s largest CCS site, also in Clive, which it says has permanently stored more than 9 million tonnes of CO2 since 2020.

It was also a founding partner of the Alberta Carbon Trunk Line, a $1.2-billion integrated CCS system that includes a 240-kilometre pipeline running from the Edmonton region to Clive. It gathers, compresses and stores more than 1 million tonnes of CO2 each year.

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The Origins hub will connect to the trunk line and Enhance Energy’s existing CCS facility in Clive.

While the project will initially serve industrial facilities in Alberta’s Industrial Heartland, the company said it could support a range of sectors, including oil and gas, petrochemicals, cement and power generation.

Federal Energy Minister Tim Hodgson said in a statement that projects like the Origins hub will help Canada reach its potential as an energy superpower.

“The federal and provincial governments and industry are working together as one Team Canada to build big things in this country again and to make sure every Canadian benefits from a stronger, cleaner, more competitive economy,” he said.

Brian Jean, Alberta’s Energy Minister, said in a statement that the project would help ensure the province “produces the most responsible oil and gas in the world” and create jobs and drive investment in rural Alberta.