Carbon Removal (DAC)

Climeworks' Orca in Iceland began operating at ~4,000 t/yr, pairing capture with permanent mineral storage — the first commercial direct-air-capture-and-storage plant.

Climeworks' Mammoth opened at ~36,000 t/yr nameplate, roughly ten times Orca — proof the modular design scales.

Microsoft contracted multi-million tonnes of durable removal across suppliers — the demand that underwrites the buildout, making CDR a real market.

Climeworks reported that Mammoth removed 675 tonnes of CO₂ in the first half of 2026, close to six times the same period a year earlier, while the plant's operating cost fell by more than half. Upgraded sorbent and collector-container design more than doubled capture performance per container under real operating conditions, and the first upgraded containers are hitting their design figures. Hold the absolute number next to the nameplate: Mammoth was announced at 36,000 tonnes a year, so 675 tonnes in six months is roughly 4% of that rate. The improvement is real and independently meaningful for a sector that has struggled to run plants near spec; the gap between design capacity and delivered tonnes is the sector's actual problem. Climeworks did not disclose the cost per tonne.

1PointFive's Stratos in Texas began ramping toward ~500,000 t/yr — over an order of magnitude larger than any prior plant, the first industrial-scale DAC facility.

Operators are building toward single plants removing ~1,000,000 t/yr — under construction, not yet operating.

The finish line: capturing and storing CO₂ for around $100 a tonne, the cost at which gigatonne-scale removal becomes economic. Targeted toward 2030, not yet here.