Tracking Methane Emissions from Space

In the season premiere of MaRS Discovery District’s podcast Solve for X: Innovations to Change the World, our CEO, Stéphane Germain sat down with Manjula Selvarajah to share how GHGSat’s satellite-based emissions technology is making a real difference in the fight against climate change. GHGSat’s satellite constellation—the first commercial effort to use satellites to detect and map methane emissions, providing operators with the data they need to mitigate the emissions faster than ever before.

“Of the tens of thousands—or even millions— of pieces of equipment that an oil and gas company might have across the world, satellites can now find that needle in a haystack,” Stéphane explains during the episode. With a fleet of 12 microsatellites already in orbit and more planned, GHGSat is proving its potential making a meaningful impact. For instance, our technology helped identify a massive methane leak from a faulty pipeline in the U.K., which was quickly fixed, avoiding potential risks to human health. In another case, our satellites detected four major methane leaks during a training session in Central Asia, leading to repairs equivalent to removing 40,000 cars off the road for a year!

As mentioned in the podcast, currently only about 1% of the methane leaks we detect are addressed by operators each year. But we are working closely with governments, philanthropies, and industries worldwide to raise awareness and drive actionable solutions to reduce emissions. For an in depth look at how we’re reshaping methane detection and Stéphane’s vision for the future listen to the full episode of Solve for X.