Microsoft is in a predicament. The company has pledged to become carbon negative by 2030, but emissions have surged more than 40% since 2020, in part due to the rapid growth of its AI business. Although the company purchased large amounts of renewable electricity, some emissions, such as air travel, were impossible to eliminate. What should Big Tech companies do?
One option is direct air capture, a process that removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Microsoft is a major investor in DAC, working on equity research for startups and pre-purchasing carbon credits. However, DAC is still in its infancy, with startups taking different approaches to find the cheapest and most efficient methods.
To speed up work, Microsoft today announced that it will work with Royal Canadian Bank to pre-purchase 10,000 tonnes of carbon over 10 years from Deep Sky, the developer of the DAC project. Unlike other DAC projects that focus on one technology, Deep Sky is hosting a bake-off of sorts, welcoming eight different startups to its site in Alberta, Canada, and seeing which companies do best. We are competing to see who can do it.
All eight startups will have space near wells where they will inject captured carbon dioxide. All the power you need to run your business comes from the same source. A shared approach makes it easier for startups to focus on what they do best: removing carbon and not worry about the rest. DeepSky procures solar power through a third party and handles carbon storage permits. (Finding suitable locations for storage is one of the limiting factors for carbon removal and storage projects.)
Deep Sky told Bloomberg that the project will be operational by April, and that Microsoft and RBC will begin receiving carbon credits by June. By DAC standards, this is a fairly fast schedule. It won't be enough to avoid reverse warming, but if Deep Sky can find a winner, it could help pull the climate out of its current precipitous decline.