19 August 2021
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3 min read
Artist impression of what Carbon Engineering's large-scale DAC plants could look like| Credit: Storegga
Virgin Atlantic signs up as prospective customer for purchase of offsets from proposed Direct Air Capture facility in Scotland
A direct air carbon capture facility currently under development in Scotland has signed up Virgin Atlantic as a prospective customer, with the airline agreeing a memorandum of understanding for the purchase of "permanent and verifiable" CO2 removal credits from the facility once operational.
Carbon removal specialist Storegga alongside technical partner Carbon Engineering are currently drawing up plans for a novel Direct Air Capture (DAC) facility in North East Scotland which they hope to have operational in 2026.
Preliminary engineering and design has already started on the proposed facility, which the developers envisage would offer capability to permanently remove one million tonnes of CO2 each year, although they will also need to combine the facility with geological storage for the carbon.
If so, the developers claim it would be the first in Europe to draw-in and permanently store CO2 directly from the atmosphere, and today they announced Virgin Atlantic has signed up as an early potential customer to purchase carbon offset credits from the facility in order to help the airline deliver on its own climate goals.
UK firm Storegga claims DAC technology provides a high quality, cost-effective means of permanently eliminating CO2 emissions from the atmosphere, in addition to offering a reliable way to remove past carbon emissions.
Such systems can therefore act as a useful tool for supporting corporate net zero targets, and even in realising a firm's ambitions to achieve net negative emissions "and full climate restoration", according to Storegga.
Nick Cooper, Storegga's CEO, hailed Virgin Atlantic's decision to sign up as a prospective early customer for carbon credits from the Scotland DAC development, arguing such technology was critical for meeting global net zero goals.
"It is excellent that Virgin have chosen to embrace DAC as an offsetting solution and to support our facility in North-East Scotland; Europe's first at scale deployment of DAC," he said. "The need for high quality, permanent, engineered offsetting is clear. To reach our net zero goals and prevent significant temperature rises, we need utilise all the tools available to us. Technical offsetting with DAC is urgently needed at scale to sit alongside nature-based offsetting. Last week's IPCC report is an alarm call to all of us. The quicker we wake up to this, the better our chances of reaching net zero."
As a member of industry initiative Sustainable Aviation, Virgin Atlantic has committed to achieving net zero emissions by 2050, in addition to helping the UK aviation sector slash its 2019 emissions by 15 per cent by the end of the decade.
Virgin Atlantic itself has also been trialling waste-based biofuels as a potential lower carbon means of powering its planes.
Juha Jarvinen, chief commercial officer at Virgin Atlantic, said he hoped early adoption of DAC technology and the development of a full carbon removal facility in the UK would demonstrate its commercial potential "and inspire other businesses to be involved".
"Virgin Atlantic's commitment to the facility complements the range of innovative partnerships we have developed to further our sustainability goals including working with technology providers for Sustainable Aviation Fuels and zero-carbon flight," he said.
