Canadian carbon removal company scores US$40M grant from Bill Gates-backed fund

A Montreal-based company that aims to build a Canadian test site for carbon removal technologies has received a US$40 million grant from Bill Gates’ climate solutions venture firm.

Canadian startup Deep Sky says it was awarded the grant to help build what it calls its Deep Sky Alpha project in Alberta.

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The project, to be built north of Calgary in the town of Innisfail, is meant to be the world’s first direct air capture carbon removal test hub and commercialization centre.

Deep Sky says it will be piloting up to 14 direct air capture projects from companies around the world at the site, in an effort to see which ones work best and could be successfully commercialized.

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Direct air capture is a term that refers to physically removing excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to slow global warming. It is different from carbon capture and storage, which refers to capturing carbon directly from smokestacks or other industrial emissions points.

Pulling carbon dioxide directly from the air is a way to clean up historic emissions that have already escaped into the atmosphere, meaning it can potentially help slow and even reverse climate change. But the technology is hugely expensive and faces steep barriers to wide-scale deployment.

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