XPRIZE announced the list of the top 60 teams that move forward in the $100 million XPRIZE Carbon Removal competition, funded by Elon Musk and the Musk Foundation. 15 competitors from those teams will also be selected to win the $1 million “Milestone Award” prize that is not included in the main prize.
The carbon removal competitions started last year with 1,133 teams that submitted applications. This whopping number of participants made it the largest collection of innovators working to solve the climate change problem.
Relevant: XPRIZE Competition Names Teams Eligible For $1M Milestone Awards
XPRIZE recently announced it cut the participants down to 287 who also had to meet the significantly robust requirements. Now 60 teams are announced to progress further and 15 of those particular teams could end up winning the competition’s $1 million Milestone Award prizes. The winners will be announced on Earth Day – April 22nd, 2022.
The 15 Milestone Award Winners will be judged based on their progress in creating and demonstrating sustainable solutions for carbon dioxide removal. Apart from that, they are also required to estimate the cost of the solution at full scale, make a case, and a plan for scaling and deploying the solution at megaton and gigaton per year capacity – the scale needed to move the needle on climate change.
“We want teams to build real systems that can make a measurable impact at a gigaton level. Whatever it takes. Time is of the essence,” said Elon Musk, initiator of the XPRIZE Carbon Removal Competition.
Relevant: UW Team Competes In XPRIZE With New Carbon Capture Tech
The IPCC forecasts the world would need to remove approximately 10 gigatons of net CO2 per year by 2050 in order to keep the global temperature rise under 1.5 or 2C. Therefore, governments, companies, and entrepreneurs are taking action to meet this challenge.
According to XPRIZE, we will need a range of carbon removal solutions to be proven through demonstration and deployment to complement work that is already underway in reducing emissions. The participating teams are dedicated to providing a carbon removal solution that could make the needed impact.
