Ørsted and Microsoft join forces to scale carbon dioxide removal
"Our landmark long-term agreement with Ørsted for high-quality carbon removal supports Microsoft’s commitment to become carbon-negative by 2030, sends a strong demand signal to scale the market, and showcases the power of partnership and the technological innovation needed to help the world make the clean energy transition."
Melanie Nakagawa
Chief Sustainability Officer, Microsoft
Since pledging to reach carbon-negative operations by 2030, Microsoft has stepped up to play a leading role in developing the technology required to rapidly scale carbon dioxide removal. This includes working alongside project developers to turn promising science into actual impact through commercial-scale deployment of carbon removal and storage.
In 2021, Microsoft collaborated with Ørsted, a leading provider of clean energy, to accelerate operationalization of carbon capture and clean energy production via biomass-fired combined heat and power plants. Microsoft’s role was to ensure that there would be demand for the carbon removal credits generated by the project to ensure commercial viability. To ensure that the first-of-its-kind project was technically viable and would result in high-quality carbon removal credits, Microsoft turned to Carbon Direct for in-depth technical due diligence.
Carbon Direct’s Industrial Decarbonization Team provided Microsoft with expert third-party support to advise on technical risks that might impact execution of the project or its timelines. In parallel, Carbon Direct’s Landscape Decarbonization Team advised Microsoft on the project’s sourcing of biomass, a critical component of the project.
In May 2023, Ørsted announced that the Danish Energy Agency (DEA) awarded Ørsted a 20-year contract for its carbon capture and storage (CCS) project ‘Ørsted Kalundborg Hub’ and that Ørsted and Microsoft had signed an agreement for nearly 2.7MT of carbon removal over 11 years.
To learn more about the Ørsted project, read the press release.