Google has agreed to pay a little-known startup $10 million in advance to remove 100,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by 2034.
The decadelong deal between the search giant and Holocene Climate is unusual because of both its structure and the parties involved.
For its patience, Google expects to receive bargain-priced carbon removal for $100 per ton — a price no other direct air capture company can yet match. The benefits for Holocene — a three-year-old DAC startup based in Knoxville, Tennessee — are immediate: a major infusion of cash and a blue-chip customer that it can leverage for additional financing and contracts that the startup will likely need to build its initial commercial facility.
“Our partnership with Holocene aims to address one of the key barriers facing DAC technologies: the hefty price tag,” wrote Randy Spock, Google’s carbon credits and removals official, in a Tuesday blog post announcing the deal. “While Holocene’s technology is still in the early stages of development, it has the potential to bring down costs significantly over time.”
