Officials have broken ground on what is expected to become Canada’s largest carbon capture project, marking a major step forward for carbon management efforts in central Alberta.
Enhance Energy Inc., a carbon management company, has officially started construction of its Origins carbon capture and storage project in Clive, Alta., a village located about 140 kilometres south of Edmonton. The company expects operations to begin in January.
Once operational, the Origins hub will initially be capable of permanently storing up to 1.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.
The project builds on Enhance Energy’s existing presence in Clive. The company already operates Alberta’s largest carbon capture site there and says the facility has permanently stored more than nine million tonnes of carbon dioxide since 2020.
Carbon capture technology is designed to trap carbon dioxide generated when fossil fuels are burned before the emissions can be released into the atmosphere. The captured CO₂ can then be transported and permanently stored.
For its initial phase, Origins will receive carbon emissions from the Northwest Redwater Sturgeon Refinery and the Nutrien Redwater fertilizer facility, both located in Alberta’s industrial heartland.
Enhance Energy said the infrastructure could eventually serve a broader range of industries, including the oil and gas sector and power generation.
The company is also closely connected to Alberta’s existing carbon transportation infrastructure. Enhance Energy is a founding partner of the Alberta Carbon Trunk Line, a carbon capture system that incorporates a pipeline extending from the Edmonton region to Clive.
The new Origins hub will connect directly to that trunk line as well as to Enhance Energy’s existing carbon capture facility in Clive, creating an integrated system for transporting and storing captured emissions.
Federal Energy and Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson said the project represents an important part of Canada’s ambition to combine energy production with environmental responsibility.
“The federal and provincial governments and industry are working together as one Team Canada to build big things in this country again,” Hodgson said in a statement Wednesday.
Alberta Energy Minister Brian Jean also highlighted the potential economic impact of the development. According to the statement, he said the project would help Alberta produce “the most responsible oil and gas in the world” while creating employment opportunities in rural Alberta.
With construction now underway, the Origins project adds another major component to Alberta’s growing carbon capture and storage network, linking industrial emitters with infrastructure designed to permanently manage their carbon dioxide emissions.
