2 minute read | July.22.2024
Microsoft has agreed to buy 500,000 tons of carbon removal credits over six years from 1PointFive, a carbon capture, utilization and sequestration company based in Houston, Texas.
It’s the largest single purchase of carbon dioxide removal credits enabled by Direct Air Capture (DAC) and highlights the increasing adoption of the technology to help organizations fight climate change and achieve net-zero emissions, 1PointFive said.
Orrick represented Microsoft on this and several other carbon-removal transactions that support Microsoft’s carbon goals.
The captured carbon dioxide will be stored underground and will not be used to produce fossil fuels, 1PointFive said in a statement.
The company plans to remove carbon dioxide from the air at its STRATOS direct-air capture facility in Ector County, Texas, which the company says “is expected to be the largest Direct Air Capture facility in the world” when construction is complete.
Brian Marrs, Microsoft’s Senior Director of Energy and Carbon, hailed 1Point5 as “a pioneer in the Direct Air Capture space.”
“To achieve gigtaon scale, we need partners with the experience and resolve to build first-of-a-kind tech and Nth-of-a-kind scale,” he said. “1PointFive is doing this right now in West Texas, with ambition to do much more.”
In the last year, Microsoft has signed one of the largest permanent CO2 removal deals, the world’s first fusion energy purchase agreement and a 12GW solar module agreement.
Microsoft also has announced the largest single corporate power purchase agreement (PPA) ever signed – a deal to deliver over 10.5 GW of renewable power capacity to the U.S. and Europe between 2026 and 2030.
Microsoft also recently announced two deals involving decarbonization through reforestation. It agreed to buy 3 million tons of carbon removal credits from a reforestation organization in Brazil and to purchase 1.6 million tons of carbon removal credits from an organization in Panama.
Orrick’s Lana Le Hir, Teresa Hill and Matt Gluschankoff advised Microsoft.