First commercial DAC plant (Orca)
2021-09Climeworks' Orca in Iceland began operating at ~4,000 t/yr, pairing capture with permanent mineral storage — the first commercial direct-air-capture-and-storage plant.
Who can pull CO₂ from the air, cheaply and at scale?
The single most intuitive view — current position against the end goal, on a log scale.
Standings by actor, within this field only.
Clear-cut events: crossed or not crossed.
Climeworks' Orca in Iceland began operating at ~4,000 t/yr, pairing capture with permanent mineral storage — the first commercial direct-air-capture-and-storage plant.
Climeworks' Mammoth opened at ~36,000 t/yr nameplate, roughly ten times Orca — proof the modular design scales.
Microsoft contracted multi-million tonnes of durable removal across suppliers — the demand that underwrites the buildout, making CDR a real market.
1PointFive's Stratos in Texas began ramping toward ~500,000 t/yr — over an order of magnitude larger than any prior plant, the first industrial-scale DAC facility.
Operators are building toward single plants removing ~1,000,000 t/yr — under construction, not yet operating.
The finish line: capturing and storing CO₂ for around $100 a tonne, the cost at which gigatonne-scale removal becomes economic. Targeted toward 2030, not yet here.
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