It is a permanent solution, unlike the planting of forests which can release their carbon by rotting, being cut down or burning in a warming planet. Even the CO2 that other firms are planning to inject into empty oil and gas fields could eventually leak out, some experts fear, but once carbon turns to rock it is not going anywhere.
Gebald says their big breakthrough was the release of the U.N.-led Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report in 2018, setting out the need for reaching net zero emissions by 2050 if global warming was to be kept to 1.5 degrees.
That project consisted of 20 turbines with a combined output of 600,000 watts.
Increased output could bring those costs down to $200 to $300 a metric ton by 2030, and $100 to $150 somewhere around 2035, he said.
While Mr. Hitz and his team are monitoring Orca to hone their next plant, which will be 10 times larger and is expected to launch in two to three years, Dr.