On March 10, 2015, leaders from SaskPower visited the Kemper Coal Plant to gain a better understanding of how Mississippi Power is using clean energy technology.

“We don’t want to lose coal, so we’re quite interested in seeing different ways of dealing with it, so the carbon can be captured and we can continue operating our coal fleet,” Vice-President – Carbon Capture & StorageInitiatives Ian Yeates says.

The SaskPower Company is owned by the Saskatchewan government, so members of Saskatchewan’s legislature play a major role when it comes to learning how to implement new energy technology.

“It’s a different technology than what we use in Saskatchewan, but I think there’s a benefit to everybody to take a look around the world and see what the various options are,” Member of Saskatchewan’s Legislative Assembly, Fred Bradshaw says.

The SaskPower plant, which went online last year, is the first Carbon Capture and Storage facility in the world. The SaskPower plant collects carbon, post-combustion, the Kemper plant will be pre-combustion.

Gasification has been going on for 150 years, but it’s implementation at the Kemper Coal Plant is unique and first-of-a-kind.

“In Canada right now there is a price on carbon. They are deploying carbon capture and storage technologies, and it’s very important for them to understand what other utilities as well as countries are doing,” Southern Company’s Richard Esposito says.

The leaders from SaskPower say they have enjoyed visiting Mississippi and the Kemper Coal Plant.

“The people are very hospitable down here, and everyone says, ‘Thank you’ and ‘Hello.’ They open doors for you and stuff like that. It’s great to be down here,” Bradshaw says.

For more information​ ​head to WTOK.com.