Microsoft is in a pickle: It has pledged to be carbon negative by 2030, but its emissions have increased by more than 40 percent since 2020, thanks to its growing AI business. The company has bought a bunch of renewable power, but some emissions, like air travel, have become impossible to eliminate. What’s a Big Tech Firm to Do?
One option is direct air capture (DAC), which is the process of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Microsoft has been a major investor in DAC, both through equity checks in startups and by committing to buy carbon credits in advance. But DAC is still in its infancy, with startups trying many different approaches in an effort to find the cheapest, most efficient way.
To speed things up, Microsoft announced today that, along with the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), it is pre-purchasing 10,000 metric tons of carbon over 10 years. Dark skya DAC project developer. Unlike other DAC projects, which focus on one technology, DeepSky is hosting a bake-off of sorts, welcoming eight startups to its site in Alberta, Canada, to see who Can do it in the best way possible.
Eight startups will find space near the wells into which they will inject the captured carbon dioxide. The power to carry out their work will also come from the same source. The shared approach should make it easier for startups to focus on what they do best — remove carbon — and not worry about the rest. DeepSky is acquiring the solar power through a third party, and it is handling the carbon storage permits. (Finding suitable storage sites is one of the limiting factors for any carbon capture and storage project.)
Dark sky told Bloomberg says the project will be completed by April and Microsoft and RBC will start earning carbon credits by June. By DAC standards, that’s a pretty fast timeline. That won’t be enough to prevent subzero temperatures, but if Deep Sky can find a winner, it could help the climate out of its current nosedive.
Credit : techcrunch.com
