Image From City of Medicine Hat

By Chris Brown

Project Clear Horizon

City granted rights for further evaluation of carbon storage

Oct 6, 2022 | 11:30 AM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – A proposed carbon capture utilization and storage hub in the Medicine Hat area is one step closer to reality this week.

The province announced Tuesday that the City of Medicine Hat’s Project Clear Horizon has been selected to begin exploring how to develop environmentally safe carbon storage hubs to reduce emissions across Alberta.

Mayor Linnsie Clark called the announcement “an encouraging first step towards the development of a CCUS hub in southern Alberta and achieving the associated benefits for our region, including with respect to business retention and expansion.”

She added in the statement that the city is still evaluating the potential for the local hub but the belief is Medicine Hat is well-positioned and eager to find confirmation.

Clear Horizon is to be an open hub where local carbon-based industries will be able to sequester their produced carbon. Having the facility in the region will sustain and promote economic vitality for the region while achieving significant emissions reductions.

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The city’s managing director of energy and infrastructure, adds the announcement is a significant achievement.

“We believe that Project Clear Horizon may lead to an economically viable solution that allows the region’s industrial facilities to achieve significant emissions reductions toward meeting Canada’s ‘net-zero by 2050’ target,” says Brad Maynes.

The city says it will continue working with the government to further evaluate Project Clear Horizon’s suitability for injecting and storing carbon dioxide. Following a successful evaluation program, the city would be invited to apply for a sequestration agreement, which will grant the rights to inject carbon dioxide into the allotted pore space and ensure open access to all emitters in the region.

At its July 4 meeting, city council voted to support the early-stage development and evaluation of Project Clear Horizon. The city will reallocate a total of $11 million to it. That came nearly a year after the city first announced its intention to become the second hydrogen hub in Canada.

Later in July it was announced would receive $2.5 million from the province for the project.

A total of $40 million would flow through the Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction fund to 11 carbon capture projects province-wide.

According to a statement from Energy Minister Sonya Savage, the 19 projects granted further exploration rights this week “were selected through a competitive process taking into account a variety of important factors, including location, Indigenous benefits, open access to regional emitters, an understanding of potential interplay with other resource development activities and the readiness to move forward quickly.”