All of us at Carbon Engineering are very excited to have been short-listed for the Virgin Earth Challenge this month! Dr. Alan Knight, VEC Director, was recently in Calgary for a press release to announce that further showcasing of the prize and its competitors would occur at Calgary’s Global Clean Energy Congress in November. Dr. Knight also revealed that Carbon Engineering is the only Canadian entry among the roughly ten remaining competitors for the prize. These competitors have been selected over a multi-year review process, from an initial pool of over 2600 applicants. The Virgin Earth Challenge was formed in 2007 by Sir Richard Branson, as a $25 million prize to incentivize the necessary innovation and development to allow direct removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The VEC website states:
“The Virgin Earth Challenge is US$25 million for whoever can demonstrate to the judges’ satisfaction a commercially viable design which results in the net removal of anthropogenic, atmospheric greenhouse gases so as to contribute materially to the stability of the Earth’s climate system.”
We are thrilled to be a part of this challenge, and to be recognized for our efforts in commercializing large-scale and cost-effective direct air capture technology. Our company President, David Keith, has been working and publishing in this field for over a decade now, and a number of our technical team employees have dedicated full-time hours (and overtime hours too) to air capture for over three years. It’s great to see the public visibility and business interest that is building in direct air capture technology. Plus, according to our specific instructions from the Virgin Group, we are now permitted to refer to ourselves as “Virgin Earth Challenge Air Capture Gurus”. Virgin’s sense of humour is icing on the cake! -GH.
