SaskPower has reached a milestone with its Carbon Capture and Storage facility near Estevan.

The utility says it has captured more than three-million tonnes of carbon dioxide, equivalent to taking 750,000 vehicles off the road.

Spokesperson Joel Cherry says CCS is an important long-term strategy to meet the growing demand for electricity while reducing greenhouse gas emissions, especially since coal is still an abundant resource. “When you are at a coal burning facility, you basically have power available to you 24/7 because it is extremely reliable. The Carbon Capture and Storage facility at Boundary Dam unit three allows us to continue to use coal there at a dramatic reduced rate of carbon emissions.”

Cherry says this follows the utility’s commitment to reducing carbon emissions 40 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. “To do that we are going to increase the amount of renewable energy we are using, but we also need base-load power to keep the lights on all the time, even when the light’s not shining or the wind’s not blowing.”

He adds that a second milestone was also reached with no lost-time injuries taking place at the facility since construction started in 2011. “We’ve had pretty much a perfect safety record there during the time it has operated and that’s a little over eight years. Pretty significant achievement there as well.”