Tesla CEO Elon Musk is delivering on his promise to offer $ 100 million for the best carbon capture technology through a new XPRIZE challenge.
Carbon capture, also called “carbon capture and storage” (CCS), are processes that involve the capture of carbon dioxide (CO2) at the emission source and the sequestration so that it does not leak into the atmosphere.
Sometimes it also involves technologies to use carbon for other purposes.
The concept was suggested as a potential solution to slow climate change, reducing the amount of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere or even reversing it in the future.
However, current carbon capture technologies have proven to be inefficient and add costs to energy production – making it uncompetitive without carbon prices. In fact, the only carbon capture plant in the United States has just closed.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said last month that he would donate $ 100 million to help develop the best carbon capture technology.
The competition will be through XPRIZE
XPRIZE, a non-profit organization that designs and hosts public competitions designed to encourage technological development for the benefit of humanity, will organize the competition.
They confirmed that the $ 100 million in prizes donated by Musk resulted in the largest grants so far:
XPRIZE Carbon Removal aims to combat the greatest threat facing humanity – combating climate change and rebalancing the Earth’s carbon cycle. Funded by Elon Musk and the Musk Foundation, this $ 100 million competition is the biggest incentive award in history, an extraordinary milestone.
The full details of the competition will not be revealed until Earth Day, April 22, 2021, but they have still released some broader guidelines.
They wrote on a new web page for the contest:
To win the competition, teams must demonstrate a validated and rigorous scale model of their carbon removal solution, and they must demonstrate to a team of judges the ability of their solution to scale economically to gigaton levels. The purpose of this XPRIZE is to inspire and help scale efficient solutions to collectively reach the goal of removing 10 gigatonnes of carbon per year by 2050, to help combat climate change and restore the Earth’s carbon balance.
Musk commented on the announcement of the contest:
We want teams to build real systems that can have a measurable impact at a gigaton level. Whatever it takes. Time is of the essence.
As usual, XPRIZE tries to distribute the prizes in the most optimal way to help develop as much useful technology as possible.
The contest will last up to four years, but after 18 months, 15 finalists will receive $ 1 million each to kick-start their operating budget and deliver a full-scale demonstration of their carbon capture technology.
In the end, the grand prize winner will receive $ 50 million, with second and third places receiving $ 20 million and $ 10 million, respectively.
In addition, 25 students will receive $ 200,000 scholarships.
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