Elon Musk to Offer $100 Million Prize for 'Best' Carbon Capture Tech

(Reuters) ... “Am donating $100M towards a prize for best carbon capture technology,” Musk wrote in a tweet, followed by a second tweet that promised “Details next week.”

Tesla officials did not immediately respond to a request for additional information. READ MORE

Excerpt from Grist: More details about Musk’s donation arrived on Monday via the XPrize Foundation, an organization that holds competitions to drive innovation and will be launching a new contest for Musk’s prize money on Earth Day. As it turns out, Musk is not backing the best carbon capture technology, but the best carbon dioxide removal technology.

That may sound semantic, but it’s a distinction that brings a different set of contenders to the table. Carbon capture typically refers to technology that can suck up CO2 directly from an emitting source, like the flue of a steel plant or the smokestack of an oil refinery, and prevent it from entering the atmosphere. Instead, Musk is funding a competition for the best solution to draw carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere or the ocean, where it has already accumulated, and safely contain it for at least 100 years.

They may also be placing a bet that paying for carbon removal could turn out to be cheaper than sustainable shipping and manufacturing.

Though he hasn’t said so explicitly, Musk’s new interest in carbon removal may be motivated by the same factors. In the past, Musk has lamented the fact that his SpaceX rockets can’t be powered by electricity and hinted that he wants to make “zero net carbon” rocket fuel.

But carbon removal is not simply a self-serving scheme for corporations. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group of the world’s leading scientists and economists, has found that the most cost-effective path to stabilizing the climate will likely involve removing carbon from the atmosphere in addition to cutting emissions. Some activists and scientists argue that global warming has already become dangerous, and carbon removal offers a potential way to reverse some of its effects. Researchers debate how much carbon removal may truly be necessary, but many argue that it’s past time to invest in solutions. Taking their advice, Congress also ordered the Department of Energy to host its own competition for the best direct air capture technology in last December’s omnibus bill.

The XPrize Foundation is asking contestants to demonstrate a working prototype for a carbon removal solution that can verifiably remove 1 ton of CO2 per day, and to prove it has the potential to scale up to remove 1 billion times that amount. Winners will be chosen in 2025. The top prize is $50 million, with smaller amounts going to runners-up. READ MORE