Bill Gates's Breakthrough Energy is giving a $40 million grant to a startup aiming to create a Canadian testing ground for technologies that suck carbon directly from the air, in an effort to speed up their rollout,

Startup company Deep Sky intends to use to the funding on the world's first direct air capture carbon removal test hub and commercialization centre, which it's working on in Innisfail.

Deep Sky, a Quebec-based developer of carbon removal projects, has landed a $40 million grant commitment from the Bill Gates-backed fund Breakthrough Energy Catalyst. Why it matters: The investment signals the $1 billion-plus Breakthrough Energy Catalyst fund's interest in demonstration projects in the carbon removal sector.

The clean-tech venture firm founded by Bill Gates is providing a $40 million grant to carbon-capture startup Deep Sky Corp., which seeks to build large-scale facilities to clean carbon from the air.

A Canadian company that has received a US$40-million grant from Bill Gates' climate solutions venture firm says its Alberta test site will be removing carbon directly from the atmosphere as early as this spring.