Capital Power Corp, the Edmonton, Alberta-based power company repowering the Genesee power plant, said it planned to discontinue its pursuit of the $2.4 billion Genesee carbon capture and storage (CCS) project in its Q1 2024 earnings report. Instead, the Canadian utility will seek to use small modular reactors (SMR) to achieve its net-zero by 2050 goals. It has signed an agreement with Ontario Power on SMR development.
“We continued to build decarbonized power through our Genesee Repowering project where we reached a key milestone with our startup of simple cycle unit 1 during Q1 2024,” said Avik Dey, president and CEO, Capital Power. “Once we startup simple cycle unit 2, expected in mid-2024, we will be fully off coal.
“Through our development of the Genesee CCS Project, we have confirmed that CCS is a technically viable technology and potential pathway to decarbonization for thermal generation facilities,” Dey said. “However, at this time, the project is not economically feasible and as a result we will be turning our time, attention, and resources to other opportunities to serve our customers with balanced energy solutions.
This is a setback for Alberta, which has invested heavily in carbon capture, utilization and storage.
