🔎 What’s going on?
Last week (on 8th Sept) Climeworks announced that the world’s largest carbon-capture plant Orca started operations in Iceland.
🌬 What does this mean?
Based on a new award-winning plant design and advanced technology, this is the second plant for Climeworks. This design is modular, uses less steel, and uses stackable container-size collector units making them even more powerful but also compact. The improved design and technology is a milestone that paves the path for ramping up carbon capture capacity significantly, and quickly as Orca provides a scalable, flexible, and replicable blueprint. Plus, the improved technology also captures more carbon per module than previously. Orca can capture 4,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year, which will then be safely and permanently stored underground through Carbfix’s natural mineralization process. Learn more here.
It took 15 months to construct Orca and it’s strategically built next to ON Power’s Hellisheiði Geothermal Power Plant so that it runs fully on renewable energy.
❓ Why should I care?
The most recent report from the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), published last month warned that we are on track to reach 1.5C by 2040, much earlier than previously thought. We are already seeing extreme weather impacts and closer to irreversible tipping points. Key takeaways from the report are here.
Earlier this year, the new International Energy Agency (IEA) report estimated that global carbon emissions are set for their second-biggest increase in history. They are set to jump by 1.5 billion tonnes this year, mostly driven by the use of coal in the power sector in Asia, led by China. However, it’s also worth noting that renewable energy is set to provide 30% of electricity generation worldwide in 2021 - their biggest share of the power mix since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.
🚦 Where do we need to be?
We need to reduce and remove carbon emissions, faster than we create them. Although the world needs some time for a just transition, we need to be reducing the use of fossil fuels, completely. Then we need to reduce carbon emissions from production (making products) and consumption (buying products) as much as possible. There will also be unavoidable emissions that will be difficult to reduce and avoid, these emissions should be captured and stored permanently, through carbon capture plants such as Orca.
👤 What can I do about it?
As an individual, you can start by measuring your personal footprint, and then you can choose to pay for carbon removal from Climeworks here.
As a business, you can also measure your carbon, reduce your emissions, offset any unavoidable emissions and then go beyond by also paying for carbon removal. Check it out here.
Both of these actions create demand for carbon removal, which allows this new technology to mature.
Related: Carbon capture startup Climeworks raises USD 75 million
Photo credit: Climeworks