Since operations began in 2014, the Carbon Capture and Storage Facility at Boundary Dam has been a source of pride for the province, mentioned in many a conversation around green energy and even the occasional bid for international attention. Today, it surpassed another milestone to be proud of. 

SaskPower announced today the CCS Facility had surpassed four million tonnes of carbon dioxide captured. The facility achieved this feat yesterday in the afternoon. This is, according to SaskPower, the equivalent to taking one million passenger vehicles off the road for a year. 

"Four million tonnes captured, that's significant for sure, it's a big milestone for us there," said spokesperson Joel Cherry. "Since the facility first started operated, that's how much we've captured as of 5:30 I think we passed that mark... That's all carbon dioxide and greenhouse gasses in general that would've gone into the atmosphere that are instead being safely sequestered away."

The CCS Facility is the first of its kind in the world, but at this rate it won't likely be the last. With the technology working as well as it does, SaskPower may be looking at other such facilities, though that is too far in the future for any plans to be concrete as of yet. 

"That's something we're still looking at," said Cherry. "We're looking at all different options for generation going forward. Our overarching goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 40 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. We're on track for that. We're looking at all the different options available to us to achieve that. CCS is one of those options, but right now we haven't made a final decision."

Boundary Dam is one of the largest producers of power in Saskatchewan, producing 115 megawatts of power, which SaskPower said is enough to power about 100,000 Saskatchewan homes. This last year in particular was a big year for both the dam and the CCS Facility. 

“Our CCS facility and Boundary Dam Unit 3 continue to provide low-carbon, baseload power to our customers, and we are still finding improvements that will support the facility as a long-term, sustainable operation,” said Howard Matthews, SaskPower Vice-President of Power Production. “In fact, 2020 was the second-best year to date for the facility, with 729,092 tonnes of CO2 captured.”

Recently, the City of Estevan invited Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, to come visit the CCS Facility as part of his challenge to get people to create carbon capture solutions.