Amazon today announced it’s paying 1PointFive for the removal of 250,000 metric tons of carbon from the atmosphere over a decade. The purchase supports 1PointFive’s construction of what aims to be the world’s largest direct air capture plant, capable of pulling 1 million tons of carbon from the air annually.
1PointFive, a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum, plans to permanently trap the carbon in deep underground rock formations that are saturated in salt water. The operations will be based in south Texas on the King Ranch.
Seattle-based Amazon also shared news it’s investing in CarbonCapture, a startup also working to capture and store carbon. The money come from Amazon’s $2 billion Climate Pledge Fund.
The deal with 1PointFive will help Amazon take a nibble out of its carbon footprint as it strives to become carbon neutral by 2040. The company reported emitting 71.3 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent last year, marking a 0.4% reduction from the previous year.
1PointFive’s new facility is one of the two newly appointed direct air capture hubs selected last month by the U.S. Department of Energy. The designation unlocks $600 million of matching funds.
Four days after the DOE news, Occidental announced its $1.1 billion purchase of Carbon Engineering, a direct air capture startup based in Squamish, B.C. Carbon Engineering will provide the carbon removal tech for the Texas project.
Last week, Microsoft announced its purchase of carbon removal credits from Heirloom Carbon — the second DOE hub designee.
None of the parties shared the terms of their deals, but The Wall Street Journal estimated that Microsoft’s purchase of 315,000 tons of carbon removal could cost it $200 million.
Amazon is also separately pursuing nature-based reforestation and conservation efforts that remove carbon.
