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.