Article content

SaskPower and the Saskatchewan government announced Monday they will not be expanding carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technology on any more coal-fired plants in the near future.

Dustin Duncan, the minister responsible for SaskPower and the environment, said there is “simply not a business case” to retrofit Boundary Dams 4 and 5 south of Estevan with CCS technology.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Sask. not moving forward on carbon capture expansion Back to video

SaskPower spent $1.5 billion retrofitting an existing coal power plant — Boundary Dam 3, near Estevan — with CCS technology. It came online in 2014 to mixed-results.

Its aim was to reduce carbon emissions generated by the coal-fired plant, while still contributing to Saskatchewan’s power grid.

Despite months where it has performed as expected, there have been long-stretches of time where the plant was not operating because repairs were needed.

It is built to be a long-term producer of 120 megawatts (MW) of base-load electricity and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to one million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) each year; but despite being built several years ago, it only surpassed capturing two million tonnes of CO2 this year.