Hi there,

Happy almost-Canada Day! In this week’s issue, we take a look at how Deep Sky delivered North America’s first verified DAC removals, and what it says about the state of carbon removal. It’s a fitting reminder that some of the most important climate solutions are being built right here 🇨🇦.

Elsewhere in climate tech:

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What happened: Deep Sky delivered the first verified direct air capture (DAC) credits in North America this week, transferring credits for 14 tonnes of permanently stored CO2 to RBC and Microsoft.

Deep Sky becomes only the second company to deliver DAC removals, after Climeworks in Iceland.

The details: DAC captures CO2 that's already in the atmosphere. Unlike most companies in the space, Deep Sky is a project developer. They've pulled together a diverse set of technologies from companies like SkyRenu and GE Vernova at their Alpha test site in Alberta, testing the technologies to see which ones will scale.

The Alpha site opened last summer, and is designed to capture 3,000 tonnes of CO2 per year. The removals are verified by UK-based certification startup Isometric, which focuses on high-quality, science-based certification.

Why it matters: Carbon removal is at an inflection point. Startups that raised capital to develop their tech now need to scale up and turn signed contracts into delivered tonnes.

Deep Sky's first deliveries are an important proof point, showing that DAC is capable of delivering real, verifiable removals.

Not so simple: DAC remains expensive, relying on large amounts of electricity to strip carbon from the air. Drawing in more buyers will require driving those costs down near the $100/tonne mark.

What's next: Deep Sky is moving from pilot to execution mode, with quarterly deliveries to RBC and Microsoft locked in, offtakes signed with TD Bank, Lufthansa and Engie, and more projects on the way in Quebec and Manitoba.

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Sellit9 (Toronto, ON) closed a $4.1 million seed round to expand its recommerce platform for electronics into new product categories and enter the US market.

Deep Sky (Montreal, QC) secured a strategic investment from Japan’s CMBC to advance DAC and carbon removal infrastructure in Japan.

Moment Energy (Vancouver, BC) received a $3 million follow-on investment from NorthX, providing working capital to bridge project deployment costs and revenues.

Ballard Power Systems (Burnaby, BC) acquired UK hydrogen producer GeoPura for $566 million, adding to its fuel cell business. Ballard plans add a “energy-as-a-service” business, combining production, storage and fuel cells.

pH7 Technologies (Vancouver, BC) received $5 million in funding from NRCan for a copper processing project.

Moment Energy opened the world's first EV battery repurposing megafactory in BC.

PowerBank partnered with Nodiac.ai to deploy modular, containerized data centres at PowerBank sites with existing power and land access.

AtkinsRealis is seeking regulatory approval to build CANDU reactors in the US to meet energy demand from data centres.

Edmonton's Wyvern joined NASA's Commercial Satellite Data Acquisition program to provide hyperspectral satellite data to NASA researchers.

FlyteBoat launched electric water taxi service in Halifax Harbour.

Colorado's Scount Clean Energy opened offices in Ottawa and started construction on a 150MW energy storage project.

SFU VentureLabs and Manterra Technologies partnered up to offer local manufacturing capacity to BC-based startups.

Aalo received DOE approval to operate its Aalo-X test reactor in Texas.

Fusion startup General Fusion will explore deploying fusion power plants in Italy with renewable energy developer Renexia.

Cielo Waste Solutions pivoted its sustainable aviation fuel project from Alberta to B.C. citing supportive policy and biomass access.

Circuit Électrique opened the first public heavy-truck charger along a major freight route from Quebec City to Toronto.

Going nuclear: Canada launched its Nuclear Energy Strategy targeting up to 10 new large reactors by 2040. The strategy is built around four pillars: enabling new builds in Canada, global exports, expanding fuel production, and new nuclear innovations.

Carbon pricing fallout: Decarbonization projects that relied on higher carbon prices are feeling the fallout from Canada’s new carbon pricing framework, which lowered the price per tonne from $170/tonne to $130.

Inter-province grid upgrades: The federal government is backing five intertie projects, allowing provinces to share electricity between provincial grids more easily. The grid upgrades are a key part of Canada's goal to double the grid by 2050.

EV rebates return: BC opened a revamped EV rebate program for medium and heavy-duty EVs, offering rebates at the point of sale and accelerating payments to sellers.

Data centre pushback: Hamilton, ON will pause approvals for new data centres to review and update rules around energy, water use, noise and more. It's the first pause in Canada as municipalities deal with more requests for projects.

Welcome, Washington: Washington state will link its carbon market with California and Quebec, expanding North America's largest cap-and-trade system. The move adds more stability to the market, expanding the number of emitters and projects in the system.

More retrofits: The feds expanded the Greener Homes Affordability Program to QC, BC, NS and PEI, directing over $500M to help low- and median-income households install heatpumps and do energy efficiency retrofits.

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