The Buzz
LATITUDE
SLASH CARBON EMISSIONS, WIN XPRIZE
PRIME TIME Raymond Block, a new development on Edmonton’s trendy Whyte Avenue, will soon be built at the site of a former gas station. It took nearly 20 years of remediation work to clean up the prime real estate, which was contaminated by leaking gas tanks. -artist's rendering courtesy Wexford Developments
Speaking of CO 2 , the NRG COSIA (Cana- dian Oil Sands Innovation Alliance) Car- bon XPRIZE is calling on entrepreneurs, companies, and researchers to convert carbon emissions into something that’s useful to the world. The goal: to slash greenhouse gas emissions. America’s largest independent power producer, NRG Energy Inc., and several of Canada’s largest oil sands producers are donating a total of US $20 million to fund the challenge. -Jacqueline Louie
of electricity annually. That’s enough to power 24 homes a year — although these panels will be helping offset the leisure centre's costs. In fact, the city expects the system will pay for itself in 14 years. Southland is also being used as a test site, as the city explores options for more solar projects for its new and existing buildings. -Jacqueline Louie PILOT PLANT PUTS CARBON CAPTURE TECHNOLOGY TO THE TEST An Alberta-based company is breaking new ground with the development of new carbon capture technology that grabs CO 2 from the atmosphere and turns it into fuel. Carbon Engineering is testing the patented technology at its newly opened pilot plant in Squamish, B.C. The $9-million facility will capture about one tonne of CO 2 per day, the equivalent of taking 100 cars off the road each year. But the ultimate goal is to prove the technology can work on a much greater scale. It works by moving large volumes of air through equipment that absorbs CO 2 in a liquid solution, then trans- forms the solution into calcium carbon- ate pellets. After the pellets are heated to about 900 C, they break down and release pure carbon, which can be used to produce synthetic fuels. If all goes well, the company plans to build a first-of-its-kind commercial plant around 2017. Carbon Engineering was founded by Harvard climate scientist David Keith and is backed by a notable list of investors, including Bill Gates. -Jacqueline Louie
SHELL’S QUEST REDUCES CARBON EMISSIONS
Shell Canada has officially opened Quest, the world’s first oil sands carbon capture and storage (CCS) project. The $1.35-bil- lion project captures CO 2 from Shell’s bitumen upgrader near Fort Saskatch- ewan, then pipes its 65 kilometres north to Thorhild County, where its pumped over two kilometres underground and permanently stored in rock formations. Since testing began in September, over 200,000 tonnes of carbon has al- ready been sequestered. The system is designed to store more than one million tonnes of carbon emissions per year, or about one-third of the emissions produced by the upgrader. To put it into perspective, that’s about the same amount of emis- sions created annually by 250,000 cars. Quest was financed by Shell and its partners, Chevron Canada and Mara- thon Oil Canada, as part of their effort to reduce the effects of global warming. The provincial government also contributed $745 million for construction and operat- ing costs for the first 10 years, while the federal government provided $129 million for engineering and design work. -Corinne Lutter CHINESE FREIGHT COMPANY PICKS EDMONTON AS ITS CANADIAN HUB Air China Cargo has chosen Edmonton for its first freight service between
Permit Holder DIALOG, the Raymond Block will have a facade that resembles nearby historic buildings. -Caitlin Crawshaw
BRIGHT DAYS FOR CALGARY’S SOUTHLAND LEISURE CENTRE
The City of Calgary is making the most of Alberta’s sunny climate. In September, the city unveiled its largest solar panel installation so far, a 600-panel system on the roof of Southland Leisure Centre. It was built in partnership with ENMAX’s Enhanced Energy Services Program. About the size of an NHL hockey rink, the $380,000 installation will pro- duce between 161,000 and 184,000 kWh
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