Online retail giant Amazon announced earlier today that the company will be purchasing 250,000 tons of carbon removal from direct air capture developer 1PointFive. The deal will be executed over the next ten years and will help fund 1PointFive’s direct air capture strategy.
The company is working on its first facility, called STRATOS, and has announced that it plans to have over 100 plants operational by 2035.
“Amazon’s purchase and long-term contract represent a significant commitment to direct air capture as a vital carbon removal solution,” said Michael Avery, President and General Manager of 1PointFive. “The addition of 1PointFive’s high-integrity, quantifiable carbon removal credits support Amazon’s path to achieve net zero and shows the growing role that DAC technology will play in decarbonization pathways.”
The companies have pointed out that the carbon dioxide will be stored in saline aquifers, separate from any oil and gas infrastructure.
The value of the deal was not announced but according to estimates by the World Resources Institute, one ton of direct air capture removal costs between $250 and $600 depending on the specific technology and the scale of the project.
The Inflation Reduction Act provides subsidies of $180 per ton removed with this technology and has jump-started the direct air capture industry.
1PointFive’s project was among the two DAC hubs that are set to receive $600 million each from the DOE for developing value chains for capturing, transporting and sequestering CO2.
Relevant: U.S. Awards $1.2 Billion For Developing Direct Air Capture Hubs In Texas And Louisiana
1PointFive’s parent Occidental recently acquired technology provider Carbon Engineering in a $1.1 billion deal, a move that would allow the oil company to tap into the nascent carbon removal credit market but also the utilization of carbon dioxide in concrete and aviation fuel.
“The acquisition enables Occidental to catalyze broader development partnerships for DAC deployment in the most capital efficient and valuable way,” said Occidental CEO Vicki Hollub.
Amazon had another direct air capture investment to announce today. Using its Climate Pledge Fund it also invested in CarbonCapture Inc., another DAC company whose CEO Adrian Corless recently told Carbon Herald that “Direct Air Capture Is Going To Be As Big As The Energy Industry”.
Relevant: Occidental Acquires Carbon Engineering For $1.1 Billion
“With these two new investments in direct air capture, we aim to target emissions we can’t otherwise eliminate at their source,” said Kara Hurst, Amazon’s VP of worldwide sustainability. “We’re also helping launch technologies we know the world will need to avoid the worst effects of global climate change — supporting those technologies’ growth so they’ll also be available to other companies and organizations.”
Amazon becomes the second tech company to purchase a significant quantity of carbon removal credits from direct air capture tech, after Microsoft’s 315,000 ton order from Heirloom. The latter is among the companies involved in the aforementioned DAC hubs but uses a limestone-based approach for capturing and mineralizing CO2 from ambient air.
Read more: Heirloom And Microsoft Ink New Carbon Removal Deal
