Saskatchewan Issuing Cooperative Considering Sustainable Investments | The Canadian News

It is one of the largest potential investments in this type of technology in the history of the Saskatchewan private sector.

Potentially, there is a lot of money on the table, but the shovels have not touched the ground and a check has not been written.

“We are talking about more than $ 510 million right now. Those project sizes don’t happen overnight. There are many variables, there are many models, there are many possibilities that have yet to occur, ”said Scott Banda, CEO of Federated Co-operatives Limited.

Last month, Co-op signed a memorandum of understanding to begin development of carbon capture technology at its Regina ethanol refinery and complex near Belle Plaine, Sask.

The company intends to work with White Cap Resources to increase the amount of CO2 captured and sequestered.

A professor at the University of Saskatchewan said that much of the carbon sequestration that is currently taking place is used to extract more oil from the ground.

“Ultimately, there is another energy company at the other end of this that can make a profit by producing oil that they otherwise would not have been able to produce,” said engineering professor Grant Ferguson.

But Ferguson said that if emissions are sequestered, it could play a big factor in the company reaching its emissions targets, which are reducing 2015 emissions by 40 percent over the next nine years and will become net zero by 2050. .

In 2019, all Co-op entities emitted more than 2.4 million tons of carbon dioxide.

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Ferguson noted that companies looking to make these investments are taking a slight risk.

“Without knowing if they will be compensated or what incentives there will be in the future for this, that could have taken their decision in a different direction,” Ferguson said.

That’s something Co-op anticipates it will need to act on climate change, but they are waiting for the rule book.

“If we are going to invest $ 500 million or more in technologies and facilities, we better know that that is the direction in which the regulatory environment is heading,” Banda said.

Co-op anticipates that half a million tons of CO2 will be captured at the refinery and ethanol complex if completed by the current schedule of 2026.