Dutch startup picked for $100M wind-powered carbon capture plant in Texas

Amsterdam-based startup Skytree is set to deploy its carbon-sucking machines on a newly announced carbon capture and storage project in Texas, US. 

Dubbed “Project Concho,” the $100mn Direct Air Capture (DAC) plant aims to vacuum up 50,000 tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere annually, permanently store it, and then sell carbon credits to companies looking to offset their emissions. 

Project Concho is masterminded by carbon capture developers Return Carbon, from the Netherlands, and Verified Carbon, from Texas. The partners have chosen Skytree to do the carbon vacuum cleaning.

Founded in 2014, Skytree’s technology is based on the carbon scrubbers used aboard the International Space Station, which remove the excess CO2 produced from the breath of astronauts. 

Skytree makes two machines: Cumulus, for small-scale applications and an industrial-scale machine called Stratus. Project Concho will deploy dozens of these units in unison, to make one single hub.   

“Project Concho is a first-of-its-kind collaboration that opens the door to even more ambitious and transformative carbon removal projects,” said Elena Nikonova, VP of Skytree’s recently opened offices in the US and Canada. 

The developers plan to power the hub using an onsite wind farm, built by Spanish energy firm Greenalia. This would make it the world’s first DAC project fully powered by wind energy, they said. 

A symbiotic relationship?

Project Concho marks a rare collaboration between a DAC facility and a wind energy provider, but one that could become a blueprint for future facilities. 

The carbon capture plant guarantees it will consistently buy wind energy, giving the wind farm a stable customer and predictable revenue. In return, the DAC plant gets low-cost, renewable energy, which is crucial for reducing the high operational costs of large-scale carbon capture. This agreement also ensures energy price stability and flexibility, making it easier for both partners to plan and grow efficiently.  

Alexandre Alonso, SVP of Business Development at Greenalia, called this a “game-changer” for renewable energy projects. 

Projecto Concho comes amid a boom in carbon capture projects in the US, partly driven by generous government subsidies. Last month, the Biden-Harris Administration, announced plans to provide up to $1.8bn in funding to support DAC technologies. This builds on the 45Q tax credit laid out in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. The incentive provides up to $180 per metric ton of CO2 captured and stored.

“The US continues to demonstrate growing demand for proven, cost-effective, scalable DAC technology driven by the needs of industry and with the backing by government,” said Skytree’s CEO Rob van Straten.