Climate Tech · Climate
Direct air capture crosses a cost threshold — barely
New reporting from four continents on whether the industry can survive the end of the subsidy era.
By Hannah Lindqvist · 11 min read
For the first time, a commercial direct-air-capture facility has reported removal costs below $300 a ton — a threshold that was a moonshot five years ago and remains, by most estimates, double what removal needs to cost.
The industry''s problem is arithmetic with a deadline: subsidy programs that built the first plants are winding down, and voluntary carbon markets are not yet large enough to replace them. The engineering curve is bending. The purchasing curve is not, yet.