Microsoft Invests in Canadian Tribal-Owned Carbon Capture Project

Microsoft is acquiring long-term credits to help fund capture of 626,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) at a tribal-owned carbon capture and storage project under development in Saskatchewan, Canada.

The deal is Microsoft’s first for the North Star BECCS (Biomass Energy with Carbon Capture and Storage) project and is spread over a 15-year period agreement timeline. North Star Carbon Solutions LP is owned by a Meadow Lake Tribal Council-Svante partnership.

Microsoft last year signed its biggest carbon removal agreement to date for a project in Louisiana.

The offtake agreement in Canada covers carbon eventually captured and stored from the MLTC Bioenergy Centre in Meadow Lake. The renewable energy power generation facility will be fed by waste biomass from an adjacent sawmill owned by MLTC as well as other local forest mills.

“We are excited about this landmark agreement,” Svante Development President Scott Gardner said in a statement. “Microsoft’s anchor offtake commitment sends a strong signal to the market about the quality of North Star’s CDRs and the readiness of the Canadian market to deliver such projects.”

At capacity, the carbon capture plant is expected to generate up to 90,000 tons of CDR credits per year and deliver CDR credits to Microsoft over a 15-year period. CO2 captured will be transported and permanently stored at a geologic storage site owned and operated by North Star, providing a fully integrated system for carbon removal from source to sink.

North Star is expected to create approximately 50 local jobs during the development and construction phase, and up to 10 ongoing jobs once the facility is operating. Commercial operation is planned for early 2029.

Microsoft will use the credits as offset to its emissions profile. The long-term transaction can help create financing security for the planned project, although a final construction decision is still pending.

U.S. federal funding and loan guarantees for carbon capture projects was decreased by the Trump Administration, but the North American continent still leads in CCS infrastructure with more than 22 million metric tons of CO2 captured, stored or utilized per year.

Next-Gen Digital Infrastructure Needs Diverse Energy Playbook

New and Free E-Book from EnergyTech

Follow ET on LinkedIn