The Government of Alberta through its Emissions Reduction Alberta (ERA) is providing $44M to 21 projects with the aim of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Included is one project from the space sector from Wyvern.
In the press release, ERA states that “If successful, the 21 projects have the potential to deliver annual greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions of 217 thousand tonnes, cumulative reductions of 1.2 million tonnes by 2030, and 5 million tonnes by 2050. This funding is also projected to create 879 person-year jobs in Alberta and have a $238 million GDP impact in the province by 2027.”
Funding comes from the Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction (TIER) fund. Per project funding was between $250,000 to $5M.
Wyvern is being provided $5M to “pilot an approach to monitor wildfire impacts and detect methane leaks from space using high-resolution, hyperspectral satellites.”
Wyvern currently has three 6U Dragonette hyperspectral satellites in orbit and recently announced that they had extended their partnership with Loft Orbital who provide space infrastructure as a service model tailored to the needs of the customer. With Loft Orbital as a partner, Wyvern doesn’t need to build, launch or operate the satellites. This will allow them to provide more data sooner.
Christopher Robson, CEO of Wyvern commented on LinkedIn about the announcement saying “On behalf of Wyvern I would like to thank Emissions Reduction Alberta (ERA) for funding our project. Our next-generation satellite is going to bring a novel capability to the market! We look forward to providing high resolution hyperspectral data for detecting methane plumes and helping combat wildfires.”