The US government will provide $3.5 billion in grants to build carbon capture and storage plants and has increased the tax credit to $180 per ton to support the technology.
The winners of the tenders will be announced in the summer of 2023, reports Climate Home News.
The authors said this is the world's largest effort to help stop climate change through direct carbon capture (DAC).
According to UN scientists, in order to achieve the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, it is necessary to suck out billions of tons of carbon from the atmosphere every year. Although much of the CO2 will be fixed naturally, a DAC will also be necessary.
The article emphasized that the world is unable to reduce carbon emissions fast enough to avoid catastrophic climate change. This contributes to the development of technology for removing carbon from the air.
It is noted that other countries also support the industry, but its funding is insignificant. For example, in Great Britain, it is planned to allocate about $124 million for carbon capture, while $12 billion is intended to stimulate demand for personal and commercial electric vehicles.
The article emphasized that applications for financing the American DAC hub were to be submitted on March 13. However, the government and some companies have not yet fully disclosed the details of the applications.
The material said that the US plans to support four hubs, but at least 9 applications have already been submitted. They can compete with two large projects of the oil company Occidental Petroleum.
According to industry experts, they all have the potential to meet the US government's target of one million tons per year. However, the development of the technology will require specialists that no university program currently prepares.
"The industry is vulnerable right now, but all the arrows are pointing in the right direction. Now we have to do our job, which is to put the iron in the ground and start removing significant amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere," said Carbon Capture Commercial Director Jonas Lee .
It is noted that the industry has also attracted the attention of oil giants. After all, demand for fossil fuels will decrease, and companies have advantages in obtaining permits for sequestration wells, which are guaranteed to keep CO2 in the ground.
The article emphasized that technology on a scale that would be able to affect climate change may be too expensive. Depending on the technical processes, capturing and storing a ton of carbon dioxide can cost more than $1,000, but the US government has set a price of $100 per ton.
According to Dan Friedman, CEO of Carbon Engineering, to achieve the cost and scale that can impact the planet requires designing a plant that can be easily duplicated and do the same thing over and over again, like a fast-food franchise restaurant .
As EcoPolitic previously reported, the administration of US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris announced the allocation of $3.7 billion to start the American industry for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
