Microsoft has just signed a partnership with the Californian start-up Heirloom Carbon to install CO2 capture equipment.
The tech giant is very invested in the field, with the particular objective of obtaining carbon negative by 2030, meaning that by this date the company will absorb more CO2 than it emits. will produce. An ambition which is illustrated today by a new announcement.
Microsoft and Heirloom Carbon partners
The Biden administration wants to be at the forefront of the climate fight. And to do this, it has multiplied initiatives, one of which consists of the creation of “hubs” of CO2 capture plants across the American territory. A project which is materializing today with the participation of Microsoft and its partner Heirloom Carbon. This start-up will in fact capture some 315,000 tonnes of CO2 for the Redmond firm over the current decade.
An activity which will take place on two American sites, one of which is already known. This is a site in Louisiana, for the construction of which Heirloom Carbon obtained a huge grant from the Department of Energy, a grant which could go up to $600 million. On site, the company will work with Climeworks, another partner already known for the creation of two giant CO2 vacuum cleaners.
An old story
The purpose of these hubs, four of which in total should be funded by a bipartisan law with a budget of $3.5 billion, is to reduce the costs induced by this technology, which is still very expensive. The different factories on site will in fact share infrastructure such as pipelines transporting the CO2 captured to underground storage locations.
The investment made by Microsoft for the occasion has not been revealed, but according to The Wall Street Journal, which starts from a base of 600 dollars per ton of CO2, Microsoft could well spend some 200 million dollars in the operation. A substantial sum, but which once again shows the interest of the group founded by Bill Gates in this solution, after the acquisition last March of the start-up CarbonCapture.
Source : The Verge
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