Sign In or Create an Account.

By continuing, you agree to the Terms of Service and acknowledge our Privacy Policy

Sparks

Carbon Removal Is Getting Gamified

Which institutional purchaser of qualifying carbon credits will come out on top?

Pollution.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

The Department of Energy wants YOU to purchase carbon removal. Well, maybe not you, personally, but your city, state, or employer. And as an incentive, it’s turning the buying process into the equivalent of an arcade game, inviting companies to try to make it to the top of a new carbon removal buyers leaderboard.

The agency soft-launched the concept on Thursday under the banner of the “Voluntary Carbon Dioxide Removal Purchase Challenge.” There’s no prize money associated with the challenge — it’s not even clear whether there will be any winners. The goal is to encourage companies to make “bigger and bolder” public commitments to purchase carbon removal. At least one company, Google, has already said it would commit $35 million this year.

As the world has delayed climate action, developing the capacity to remove carbon from the atmosphere has become an imperative. Scientists now suggest it is “unavoidable” if we want to limit warming to internationally agreed-upon levels. Carbon removal offers both a way to cancel out emissions from activities like flying and growing food that could take decades to figure out how to eliminate, and an antidote for some of the legacy carbon that’s already been emitted.

But today, existing carbon removal methods and technologies are too small-scale and expensive to make a meaningful difference. Many also lack adequate techniques to measure and verify how effective they are. That’s why last year the Department of Energy announced that it would spend $35 million to purchase carbon removal from promising companies. The initial winners are expected to be announced later this year.

With that program, the DOE was following in the footsteps of companies like Stripe and Microsoft, both of which have put significant resources toward vetting carbon removal startups and making early purchases of credits to help get the industry off the ground. With this new challenge, the agency said it aims to address non-financial barriers that are preventing companies from buying carbon removal as part of their climate strategies, such as a lack of transparency and a “lack of recognition that carbon removal credit purchases are essential and valuable today.”

To join the challenge, a company or organization will be required to purchase carbon removal credits “annually” and disclose the details to the DOE. The agency will build a public inventory of carbon removal credit buyers, suppliers, projects, standards and methodologies used, and volume of carbon removal delivered.

Companies have no apparent incentive to participate other than to see their names on the list, and possibly try and get to the top. In the words of DOE, it offers a “a unique opportunity to enter the carbon removal market with a splash!” (Exclamation point added by me.)

There is already a voluntary leaderboard tracking carbon removal purchases and deliveries called CDR.FYI. But not just anyone will be able to get on the DOE’s list. To qualify, the purchases must also be “aligned with the requirements and assessment criteria of DOE’s purchases.” The agency also said it would evaluate additional carbon removal projects beyond those it has assessed for its purchase pilot, and publish a list of available credits that have garnered a government stamp of approval.

Sasha Stashwick, the policy director at Carbon180, a carbon removal advocacy nonprofit, told me this is a promising step to building a carbon removal market that doesn’t suffer from the integrity issues that have plagued the voluntary carbon offsets markets.

“I think one of the key non market barriers is, how do you even define what is a reputable ton of carbon removal? Alleviating that burden is potentially huge,” she said. “The federal government is basically saying, we’ll de-risk these projects for you. We’ll determine what is a good project, and you can buy alongside us.”

The rules are preliminary, and the agency is accepting comments on the program until May 15. It expects to launch the challenge later this year.

Green

You’re out of free articles.

Subscribe today to experience Heatmap’s expert analysis 
of climate change, clean energy, and sustainability.
To continue reading
Create a free account or sign in to unlock more free articles.
or
Please enter an email address
By continuing, you agree to the Terms of Service and acknowledge our Privacy Policy
Sparks

The Country’s Largest Power Markets Are Getting More Gas

Three companies are joining forces to add at least a gigawatt of new generation by 2029. The question is whether they can actually do it.

Natural gas pipelines.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Two of the biggest electricity markets in the country — the 13-state PJM Interconnection, which spans the Mid-Atlantic and the Midwest, and ERCOT, which covers nearly all of Texas — want more natural gas. Both are projecting immense increases in electricity demand thanks to data centers and electrification. And both have had bouts of market weirdness and dysfunction, with ERCOT experiencing spiky prices and even blackouts during extreme weather and PJM making enormous payouts largely to gas and coal operators to lock in their “capacity,” i.e. their ability to provide power when most needed.

Now a trio of companies, including the independent power producer NRG, the turbine manufacturer GE Vernova, and a subsidiary of the construction firm Kiewit Corporation, are teaming up with a plan to bring gas-powered plants to PJM and ERCOT, the companies announced today.

The three companies said that the new joint venture “will work to advance four projects totaling over 5 gigawatts” of natural gas combined cycle plants to the two power markets, with over a gigawatt coming by 2029. The companies said that they could eventually build 10 to 15 gigawatts “and expand to other areas across the U.S.”

So far, PJM and Texas’ call for new gas has been more widely heard than answered. The power producer Calpine said last year that it would look into developing more gas in PJM, but actual investment announcements have been scarce, although at least one gas plant scheduled to close has said it would stay open.

So far, across the country, planned new additions to the grid are still overwhelmingly solar and battery storage, according to the Energy Information Administration, whose data shows some 63 gigawatts of planned capacity scheduled to be added this year, with more than half being solar and over 80% being storage.

Keep reading...Show less
Yellow
Sparks

An Emergency Trump-Coded Appeal to Save the Hydrogen Tax Credit

Featuring China, fossil fuels, and data centers.

The Capitol.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

As Republicans in Congress go hunting for ways to slash spending to carry out President Trump’s agenda, more than 100 energy businesses, trade groups, and advocacy organizations sent a letter to key House and Senate leaders on Tuesday requesting that one particular line item be spared: the hydrogen tax credit.

The tax credit “will serve as a catalyst to propel the United States to global energy dominance,” the letter argues, “while advancing American competitiveness in energy technologies that our adversaries are actively pursuing.” The Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Energy Association organized the letter, which features signatures from the American Petroleum Institute, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Clean Energy Buyers Association, and numerous hydrogen, industrial gas, and chemical companies, among many others. Three out of the seven regional clean hydrogen hubs — the Mid-Atlantic, Heartland, and Pacific Northwest hubs — are also listed.

Keep reading...Show less
Red
Sparks

Why Your Car Insurance Bill Is Making Renewables More Expensive

Core inflation is up, meaning that interest rates are unlikely to go down anytime soon.

Wind turbines being built.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

The Fed on Wednesday issued a report showing substantial increases in the price of eggs, used cars, and auto insurance — data that could spell bad news for the renewables economy.

Though some of those factors had already been widely reported on, the overall rise in prices exceeded analysts’ expectations. With overall inflation still elevated — reaching an annual rate of 3%, while “core” inflation, stripping out food and energy, rose to 3.3%, after an unexpectedly sharp 0.4% jump in January alone — any prospect of substantial interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve has dwindled even further.

Keep reading...Show less