Microsoft is doubling down on a controversial plan to seize carbon dioxide emissions from wood-fired energy crops. Introduced a contract with vitality firm Stockholm Exergi to seize three.33 million metric tons of carbon emissions from a biomass energy plant within the Swedish capital, doubtlessly the most important deal of its type thus far – equal to taking up 790,000 fuel automobiles. on the highway for a yr.
It ought to assist Microsoft obtain its aim of sequestering extra planet-warming carbon dioxide than it produces as an organization by 2030, after which eradicating as a lot CO2 from the environment because it has ever emitted since its founding by 2050.
However the jury remains to be out on whether or not wood-fired energy crops really assist battle local weather change or make issues worse. Distinguished environmental teams, together with the Middle for Organic Variety and Associates of the Earth Worldwide, criticized the technique as a “false resolution”. And in 2018, almost 800 scientists signed a letter to the European Parliament asking it to cease supporting the usage of wooden for bioenergy.
Distinguished environmental teams criticized the technique as a “false resolution”
Exergi runs an influence plant in Stockholm that runs on wooden pellets and residues from forest waste, also called forest biomass. As a result of the gasoline comes from timber that may theoretically regenerate to seize as a lot carbon dioxide as the facility plant releases by burning wooden, proponents see it as a carbon-neutral vitality supply. The European Fee really considers biomass burning the most important supply of renewable vitality, though it has been tied to deforestation in Europe and the US.
Microsoft and Stockholm Exergi are taking this concept a step additional by including machines to the facility plant which can be presupposed to seize a lot of the carbon dioxide emissions earlier than they’ll escape into the environment. By doing so, they imagine they’ll obtain unfavorable emissions – eradicating extra CO2 from the environment than this vitality supply produces. Carbon-negative applied sciences like this have change into widespread amongst firms attempting to offset the environmental impression of their carbon air pollution.
Microsoft declined to reply The Vergehis request for remark. It additionally didn’t make clear how a lot it’ll spend on the Stockholm Exergi deal. However Microsoft has heard these considerations earlier than. It signed one other deal final yr with Danish vitality firm Ørsted to seize 2.76 million metric tons of carbon dioxide from a wood-fired energy plant in Denmark.
In Stockholm, development of the facility plant's carbon seize gear will not be scheduled to start till subsequent yr – if Stockholm Exergi secures sufficient further funding from different offers and authorities assist. It could then take 10 years to extract the entire three.33 million metric tons of carbon dioxide agreed within the contract.
Stockholm Exergi sees this deal as an enormous stamp of approval for its carbon seize expertise. “It’s the strongest potential recognition of the importance, high quality and sustainability of our undertaking,” Stockholm Exergi CEO Anders Egelrud mentioned in a press launch.