Sign In or Create an Account.

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

Sparks

Heirloom Is Moving a Giant DAC Project to Shreveport

We have questions.

Project Cypress.
Heatmap Illustration/Project Cypress

Northwest Louisiana is about to be awash in direct air capture. Heirloom announced today that it’s moving its half of the Department of Energy-funded Project Cypress DAC hub from coastal Calcasieu Parish inland to Shreveport — and that it will be building a second facility, capable of removing 17,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually, on the same site. Once the two facilities reach full scale, they will have the capacity to suck up a combined 317,000 metric tons of CO2 per year.

Project Cypress, one of two regional DAC hubs that’s been announced thus far, is a partnership between Bay Area-based Heirloom, the Swiss DAC company Climeworks, and project developer Battelle. As per the initial plan, Climeworks will still build out its portion of Project Cypress in southwest Louisiana, and together with Heirloom’s Shreveport plant, the two facilities will pull a combined megaton of CO2 out of the atmosphere every year.

Those are the basic facts, but still, I had a lot of questions. Why make the move at all? What does it mean for Project Cypress, for the Calcasieu community, and for Climeworks? Here’s what Heirloom told me.

Why Shreveport?

Heirloom was already in the planning phase for its 17,000 ton facility in Shreveport prior to its selection for the DAC hubs program, a spokesperson told me. Thus, “it became clear that co-locating our portion of the Project Cypress Hub in the same location made a lot of sense from a cost and operational efficiency perspective.”

Will this make Project Cypress more expensive?

At this early stage it’s hard to say. But Heirloom and Climeworks will now need to develop their own distinct CO2 transport and storage systems, infrastructure that could have been shared were the two facilities close together.

Heirloom, for its part, expects its new 17,000 ton facility to be operational by 2026, while its larger Project Cypress plant is planned to come online in 2027. Initially, this larger facility will remove 100,000 metric tons of CO2 annually, eventually ramping up to 300,000 metric tons. For both projects, Heirloom is partnering with the carbon management company CapturePoint to permanently sequester CO2 in underground wells.

But storing carbon is not the only logistical challenge involved. The companies will now need to undertake separate community planning and engagement processes, a daunting task even when they had just one to figure out. And yet, the Heirloom spokesperson told us, because planning for Project Cypress is still in its early stages, any additional impacts will be “minimal.”

Did the Department of Energy approve the change?

The DOE administers the DAC Hub program that awarded Project Cypress $50 million in March, so this is no small question. The program is “meant to spur the development of clean energy capabilities across geographical regions, not necessarily in one specific location,” the Heirloom spokesperson told me, and said “the Department of Energy has been incredibly supportive of Heirloom’s expansion into North West Louisiana.” (When we asked DOE, a representative said the agency knew of the move but didn’t provide any further details.)

All this comes on the heels of a big year for Heirloom, which uses limestone powder to absorb CO2 from the atmosphere. Late last year it unveiled its first commercial DAC facility, which is capable of capturing 1,000 metric tons annually. The Shreveport plants thus represent a massive scale-up.

Heirloom wouldn’t disclose its cost per metric ton of CO2 removed, but the spokesperson said it’s currently “in the high hundreds of dollars,” and that it has an eye toward getting below $100 per metric ton by 2035, the widely accepted metric for commercial viability. So far, the company said, it has “sold a substantial portion of the capacity from both facilities to voluntary buyers.” Customers include major players in the voluntary carbon removal market, including Microsoft, Stripe, Klarna, JPMorgan Chase and Meta. Louisiana is also providing Heirloom with a set of economic incentives worth around $10 million, the company said.

Editor’s note: This piece has been updated to include a response from the Department of Energy.

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
Yellow
Sparks

Trump’s Pro-Gas, Transition-Skeptical Pick to Run the Nation’s Energy Data

Tristan Abbey would come to Washington from a Texas think tank that argues peak oil is way off base.

Donald Trump.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Donald Trump’s pick to run the Energy Information Administration works for a think tank that denies the existence of an energy transition.

The Energy Information Administration is the nation’s primary energy fuel and power forecasting agency. Since its inception in 1977, EIA has become a go-to source of data for many U.S. businesses, analysts, and policymakers alike. The agency’s previous administrators have been relatively apolitical academics and industry experts, including under the first Trump administration, whose EIA administrator came to the role from a faculty position at Rice University. The office’s current acting administrator is Stephen Nalley, who was appointed deputy administrator by Trump in 2018 after serving in various other roles at the agency.

Keep reading...Show less
Blue
Sparks

Why Are AI Stocks Falling Again?

Microsoft is canceling data center leases, according to a Wall Street analyst.

Microsoft headquarters.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

The artificial intelligence industry is experiencing another TD Cowen shock.

The whole spectrum of companies connected to artificial intelligence — the companies that design the chips, that supply the power, that make the generation equipment — shuddered Wednesday when the brokerage released another note from analysts pointing to evidence that Microsoft was giving up on its data center leases.

Keep reading...Show less
Sparks

The IRS Is Taking Mercy on Electric Car Buyers

The tax agency reopened its online portal to allow dealerships to register sales retroactively.

The IRS building.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

As recently as last month, some electric vehicle buyers were running into roadblocks when they tried to claim the EV tax credit on their 2024 returns. Their claims were rejected, it turned out, because the dealership where they bought their EV never registered the sale with the Internal Revenue Service.

On Wednesday, the IRS instituted a fix: It reopened the online portal for dealerships to report these sales retroactively.

Keep reading...Show less
Green