Google said it has entered into a partnership with Holocene to support direct air capture technology to capture and remove carbon dioxide emissions from the atmosphere. Under this $10 million deal, Google will receive $100 per metric ton of carbon credits from Holocene. This is the price of the US Department of Energy for direct air capture technology, making it a relevant part of efforts to reduce the rate at which carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere.
As the name suggests, direct air capture can capture carbon dioxide from the air and then concentrate the gas to be stored in underground reservoirs. It sounds great in theory, but the technology has proven expensive and difficult to scale. Google said its support should allow the Holocene to capture and store 100,000 tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by the early 2030s, while also helping the company further improve its DAC technology. Holocene has a more detailed explanation of its DAC approach .
Sustainability has become an important talking point for many major technologies. Google has invested heavily in getting carbon offsets, so much so that it claims to have eliminated all carbon.,” and aims to be carbon neutral by 2030. But its greenhouse gas emissions have soared. Thanks to the intensive data center requirements of AI usage in the last five years.
