Climeworks and Great Carbon Valley have created a partnership with the shared aim to establish Direct Air Capture plus storage projects which will be capable of removing an estimated 1 million tons of CO2 from the atmosphere.

The project has been well thought-out between the companies as Climework is well known for its DAC technologies as it has a lot of experience operating the only commercial-scale Direct Air Capture and Storage plant worldwide. Furthermore, situating the projects in Kenya will be extremely beneficial as Kenya’ Great Rift Valley is a prime location for low-carbon energy such as geothermal, wind, and solar energy generation, and it also has high potential for permanent carbon mineralisation deep underground which is ideal for storage.

Christoph Gebald, co-CEO and co-founder of Climeworks commented, “Kenya’s unique qualities make it a forerunner for effective carbon dioxide removal through DAC+S. Partnering with Great Carbon Valley, we’re exploring this high potential, combining our field experience to unlock a key contribution from Kenya to global decarbonization. Climeworks is set on being a pivotal player in this arena, both in Kenya and on the world stage.”

The next steps for this project involves the collaboration of Great Carbon Valley (GCV) is taking a closer look at potential storage and energy opportunities with various key collaborators in order for the project and place to meet key requirements. These include elements such as low-carbon, cost-effective and safe direct air capture and storage operations.

The CEO of Great Carbon Valley Bilha Ndirangu, said, “East Africa is home to abundant untapped renewable energy potential including world-class solar, wind and geothermal energy resources, and basalt formations necessary to catalyse a vibrant carbon removals industry. We are thrilled to partner with Climeworks to deploy its advanced DAC technology in Kenya’s Great Rift Valley and together validate the region’s significant potential for scalable, high-quality, permanent carbon removal in support of global decarbonization efforts.”

The companies developing this project have said they plan to have created a DAC+S plant that could be operational as early as 2028. This is assuming that the local energy and storage infrastructure can be created and put in place in time for that deadline.