Google has signed a $10 million deal to pull 100,000 tons of carbon dioxide out of the air.
The company will buy direct air capture (DAC) credits from startup Holocene, to be delivered in the early 2030s.
The deal is the lowest price on record for DAC, at $100 per ton - a price the Department of Energy previously said was needed to make carbon capture mainstream.
Google will provide the funds up front, but there is no guarantee that Holocene will hit that goal. Running Tide, a carbon removal company that Microsoft paid to capture 12,000 tons of CO2 in 2023, shut down in 2024.
The $100 price was also made possible thanks to the US government’s 45Q tax credit, which provides DAC suppliers $180 per ton of carbon removed.
"The structure of this partnership — providing immediate funding to achieve an ambitious but important price in the medium term — is just one way to support carbon removal as it scales," Randy Spock, carbon credits and removals lead, said.
Holocene passes air through a waterfall with an amino acid added to it which binds CO2. This is then mixed with guanidine to form a solid crystal mass. Next, the amino acid is sent back to the beginning of the loop, while the solid is lightly heated to release pure CO2 - which can then be stored.
The company plans to capture and store 100,000 tons of CO2 by the early 2030s.
Earlier this year, Google pledged to spend $35 million on carbon capture projects. It is also part of Frontier Climate which makes aggregated purchases of carbon capture credits from a number of companies projects, and technologies.
Google X spin-out 280earth plans to develop its own carbon capture facility in Oregon, likely using waste heat from Google's data centers.
