Alberta’s first operational carbon capture facility, the Meadowbrook Carbon Storage Hub, quietly commenced operations in December. Bison Low Carbon Ventures Inc. (Bison), the developer, issued a press release stating:
“The Phase 1 facility is licensed for up to 500 kilotonnes per annum of CO2 injection and we expect the project, once scaled, to be able to safely handle a minimum of 3 million tonnes per annum of CO2 injection for permanent sequestration.”
Government of Alberta Announcement
When the Government of Alberta announced this project on June 4, Brian Jean, the Minister of Energy and Minerals, proclaimed, “Projects like the Meadowbrook Carbon Storage Hub play a key role in Alberta producing the most responsible oil and gas in the world.”
Keith Bradley, Acting CEO of Invest Alberta, stated, “The opening of Meadowbrook shows that Alberta can turn CCUS ambition into real projects, real operations and real investment.”
Matthew Brister, President of Bison, added, “It positions us to be able to offer a safe, cost effective and diversified carbon storage solution to both large Heartland area customers via pipeline, as well as supporting bespoke smaller projects via tractor trailer. We hope the backdrop in support of increased adoption of industrial CCS continues to improve, and we take aspects of the recent federal provincial accord as potentially very positive in that regard.”
On June 8, Joseph Schow, Alberta’s Minister of Jobs, Economy, Trade and Immigration, tweeted a photo of the facility (top of the page). He wrote, “The Meadowbrook Carbon Storage Hub is the first of its kind in Canada, which so far has brought $17 million of private investment, with plans to expand to an estimated $150 million.”
Whether the Meadowbrook facility can deliver on what it promises has yet to be seen.
Prime Minister Mark Carney proclaimed his tentative support of this technology during the 2025 election, stating, “We … can lead in areas such as carbon capture and storage.” The phrase ‘Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage’ is at the heart of his subsequent MOU with Alberta.
Other Carbon Capture Plants under Construction
There are at least three more facilities under construction in Alberta.
Glacier Gas Plant CCS (Phase 2) is expected to come online this year and the developers claim it will capture approximately 160,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions annually.
Bison is building a second carbon capture facility near Drumheller.
Royal Dutch Shell is building the Polaris Carbon Capture Project in Strathcona County. The first phase is scheduled to come online in 2028 and developers claim it will capture 750,000 tonnes of carbon a year.
In addition, Pathways Alliance is proposing to build a $16.5 billion storage hub in the Cold Lake region of Alberta. This would entail captured CO2 from oil sands facilities being transported 400-plus kilometres by pipeline.
In their Implementation Agreement of May 15, “Canada and Alberta reaffirm that construction of the Pathways Project and the construction of the oil pipeline project as set out in the MOU and Part IV of this Agreement (Oil Pipeline to Asian Markets) are mutually dependent.”
Links of Interest:
- Meadowbrook Carbon Storage Project (with links to similar projects) – Gov of Alberta
- Bison Low carbon Ventures
- Articles about, or mentioning, carbon capture
Top image credit: Photo of the Meadowbrook facility taken from the twitter feed of Joseph Schow, Alberta’s Minister of Jobs, Economy, Trade and Immigration.
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