logo
episode-header-image
Sep 2021
54m 8s

Will Direct-Air Carbon Capture Be Viable...

Wood Mackenzie
About this episode

Carbon capture has long been criticized as too nascent, too expensive, and too distracting. Is that changing?

This month, the Swiss company Climeworks officially launched a direct-air capture plant in Iceland, called Orca. 

The company has already signed deals with SwissRe, Bill Gates, Stripe, and Shopify to sell them credits from the plant. But the tech is still pretty expensive and relatively small scale. 

Climeworks wants to build megaton-scale plants by the end of the decade. Lots of other plants are in the works. So what does this commercial launch signal for the carbon-capture industry? 

Plus, new research shows just how drastically we need to slash fossil fuels to limit dangerous warming. 

And, California tries to fix the busted recycling system with a “truth in advertising” law aimed at plastics companies.

The Energy Gang is a Wood Mackenzie podcast.

The Energy Gang is brought to you by Sungrow. As a leading provider of PV inverter solutions across the world, Sungrow has delivered more than 10 gigawatts of inverters to the Americas alone and 154 gigawatts in total across the globe. Email them to learn more.

The Energy Gang is brought to you by S&C Electric Company. Today, non-wires alternatives such as microgrids can provide more sustainable, resilient and economical ways to deliver reliable power. S&C helps utilities and commercial customers find the best solutions to meet their energy needs. Learn more.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Up next
Aug 19
Petrostates, electrostates, and the energy transition. Gerard Reid of the Redefining Energy podcast visits the Energy Gang
Is the global transition to low-carbon energy accelerating or slowing down? One answer is that it depends where you look. In the US, energy policy has shifted away from support for low-carbon technologies, but China is continuing with record installations of solar, wind, and batt ... Show More
1h 3m
Aug 5
Planning the grid to meet future energy demand | A discussion on the future of the grid, AI, energy innovation, and delivering the electricity supply we will need in the coming decades
The grid “is designed for the core components - supplying electricity - but we are definitely pushing it to its limits,” says Melissa Lott, Partner for energy technologies at Microsoft*. The electricity grid has been described as one of the greatest achievements of human civilisa ... Show More
1h 11m
Jul 22
What will energy look like 5 years after the 'Big Beautiful Bill?' The Energy Gang report from 2030.
In this episode, we take a trip in a time machine, five years into the future. 2030 has been set as a deadline for many climate goals, and is a milestone for checking progress towards a low-carbon energy system. Ed Crooks, Amy Myers Jaffe and Melissa Lott imagine themselves five ... Show More
1h 14m
Recommended Episodes
Mar 2023
The Carbon Copy: The great electrician shortage
Come watch a live episode of The Carbon Copy! Canary Media and Post Script Media are hosting a live event at Greentown Labs in Somerville, Ma. on April 6. record a live episode of The Carbon Copy with some very special guests. Get your tickets today.We’re bringing you a special c ... Show More
32m 40s
Oct 2022
Climate tech to save the planet: Out of thin air
Direct air carbon capture - taking carbon dioxide straight out of the air around us - sounds like science fiction. In this episode Pilita Clark visits Iceland to meet the engineers and scientists at the forefront of this new tech. Can carbon capture scale up quick enough to have ... Show More
24m 21s
Oct 2020
Will California’s Gas-Car Ban Boost America’s Flat EV Market?
California plans to ban new internal-combustion vehicles by 2035. But are electric vehicles ready to take their place?We know that there are dozens and dozens more models of electric cars on the market. Ranges are increasing. Consumers like the driving experience. And total costs ... Show More
43m 45s
Aug 2023
Your carbon footprint should bring you joy
The concept of a “carbon footprint” began as a distraction from Big Oil: get people to focus on their own actions rather than the impact of large emitters. Oil companies come up with PR campaigns all the time, but the carbon footprint took off because it taps into a question we k ... Show More
34m 57s
Nov 2022
Climate tech to save the planet: Hype and hydrogen
The joke about hydrogen is that it’s the fuel of the future, and always will be. But green hydrogen is made from renewable energy and emits only water vapour, so amidst the fight to reduce carbon emissions, has green hydrogen’s moment now finally arrived? In the latest episode of ... Show More
24m 17s
Nov 2022
Climate tech to save the planet: Techno-optimism or greenwashing?
Billions of dollars are being spent by tech companies and investors on new technology to fight climate change. In the final episode of this series of Tech Tonic, Eric Toone, from Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures fund, tells FT columnist and host Pilita Clark why he believ ... Show More
24m 22s
Apr 2022
How can the UK get to zero carbon?
Energy is essential: every living thing needs energy to survive, and today’s industrialised societies consume enormous quantities of it. At the moment, the vast majority of this comes from burning fossil fuels that emit carbon. But the government is committed to reaching net zero ... Show More
27m 46s
Mar 2023
Google Shakes Up Corporate Renewable Energy Purchasing
Renewable energy power purchase agreements have been integral to many companies’ sustainability strategies. Google was early to enter this space and is now thinking about how to take its targets a step further with around-the-clock carbon-free energy. But what differentiates Goog ... Show More
49m 24s
Feb 2021
Covid Gave Us a Glimpse of the Future [Special Content from Wartsila]
What if we could see into the future? In 2020, we got our clearest view yet.Last March, lockdowns swept across Europe, forcing an eerie silence on some of the world’s most iconic and bustling cities. It caused a steep drop in electricity consumption -- putting pressure on thermal ... Show More
15m 57s
Apr 2022
Redefining Energy Storage
When the sun stays out for a few extra hours in summer, where do we store the excess energy? This is one of the biggest challenges facing the renewable energy industry. When looking at countries like Norway, which is currently powered by 50% renewable energy, mostly coming from H ... Show More
1h 1m