INNISFAIL - Last week was a memorable busy one for Alex Petre, Deep Sky’s chief executive officer.
Petre welcomed 30 guests on Aug. 20 at the recently-completed carbon capture facility located on the west side of town in Southwest Industrial Park.
“I have a group of 30 science teachers coming to tour the facility today because they're really interested to explain more to their students in terms of what carbon capture means and what it all entails,” said Petre. “We are going to continue our efforts to use this as an education centre.”
On the same day, the Montreal-based company announced its Deep Sky Alpha facility was fully operational with the first shipment of CO2 being loaded and transported to the company’s deep underground storage unit in northern Alberta.
The facility captured CO2 from its first operating trio of direct air capture (DAC) units named Airhive, Mission Zero and Skyrenu.
“It’s not a super, super, big number. The point is that we started,” said Petre of the first CO2 load. “We're going to have the information on our website soon, so readers will be able to watch along as we go.”
By next year Deep Sky Alpha will have 10 operational DAC units capturing and then transporting about 3,000 tons of CO2 per year, reportedly the same amount produced by 650 motor vehicles.
“This is a defining moment, not just for Deep Sky, but for the global carbon removal industry,” said Petre. “In just one year, we went from breaking ground to pulling carbon from the sky and locking it underground for good.
“Companies around the world are looking for high-quality, durable carbon removal to offset carbon footprints,” added Petre. “With Deep Sky Alpha, we’re proving that it’s not only possible, it’s here.”
It was over a year ago when the company announced it was setting up a testing facility using multiple DAC technologies on five acres of land in Innisfail’s new industrial park.
But Petre told the Albertan that while “testing facility” was once used to describe the Innisfail operation there has been a change.
“Testing makes it sound like we run a test for a day and stop, and then we run another test for another day, which is not true,” said Petre. “We do keep them operational. It is also a commercial operation. We do have carbon credits that we sell to our founding buyers.
“The carbon credits from this facility have been sold for the next 10 years. We will work to deliver on our promises to our buyers. Even though Alpha is a little bit smaller scale it’s commercial. It's just a smaller one compared to the large-scale commercial facilities we will build elsewhere.”
On Aug. 20 Deep Sky officials said in a news release that the company secured a recent $40 million grant from Breakthrough Energy Catalyst and carbon removal credit purchase agreements with buyers, including Microsoft and Royal Bank of Canada.
The Deep Sky Alpha project in Innisfail has generated more than 110 construction jobs and will employ about 15 full-time operators.
The company said earlier it would have a grand opening in the fall but that too has changed.
Deep Sky Alpha will instead host many smaller scale events for all different audiences, as well as facility tours.
