XPRIZE, the world\u2019s leader in designing and launching incentive competitions to solve humanity\u2019s grand challenges, today announced the $100M XPRIZE Carbon Removal sponsored by Elon Musk and the Musk Foundation.<\/p>\n
This four-year global competition invites innovators and teams from anywhere on the planet to create and demonstrate a solution that can pull carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere or oceans and lock it away permanently in an environmentally benign way. To win the competition, teams must demonstrate a rigorous, validated scale model of their solution at a level of carbon removal of 1 ton of CO2 per day, and further must demonstrate to a team of judges the ability of their solution to economically scale to gigaton levels. The objective of this XPRIZE is to inspire and help scale efficient solutions to collectively achieve the 10 gigaton per year carbon removal target by 2050, to help fight climate change and restore the Earth\u2019s carbon balance.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to make a truly meaningful impact. Carbon negativity, not neutrality. The ultimate goal is scalable carbon extraction that is measured based on the \u2018fully considered cost per ton\u2019 which includes the environmental impact. This is not a theoretical competition; we want teams that will build real systems that can make a measurable impact and scale to a gigaton level. Whatever it takes. Time is of the essence,\u201d said Elon Musk, founder and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are challenging engineers, scientists and entrepreneurs to build and demonstrate carbon removal systems that work,\u201d said Peter H. Diamandis, Founder and Executive Chairman of XPRIZE. \u201cSystems that in sub-scale can demonstrate real, viable carbon removal at 1 ton per day, and then show us how those systems can scale (cost effectively) to scale massively to gigaton scale. The goal of this competition is to inspire entrepreneurs and engineers to build the carbon dioxide removal solutions, many of which have only been discussed and debated. We want to see them built, tested, and validated. We hope this XPRIZE will activate the public and private sectors to get involved in the same way that the $10M Ansari XPRIZE brought about the commercial spaceflight industry.\u201d<\/p>\n
For humanity to reach the Paris Agreement\u2019s goal of limiting the Earth\u2019s temperature rise to no more than 1.5\u02da(C) of pre-industrial levels, or even 2\u02da(C), we need bold, radical tech innovation and scale up that goes beyond limiting CO2 emissions, but actually removes CO2 already in the air and oceans. If humanity continues on a business-as-usual path, the global average temperature could increase 6\u02da(C) by the year 2100.<\/p>\n
The full competition guidelines will be announced on April 22nd<\/sup>, 2021, which is also Earth Day. On that same day team registration will begin. The competition will last for 4 years through Earth Day 2025.<\/p>\n The $100M in prize purses will be distributed in the following manner:<\/strong><\/p>\n After 18 months, at the discretion of the competition judges, the 15 top teams selected will receive $1 million each. Milestone Awards will kickstart team fundraising for their operating budgets to achieve the full-scale demonstrations required to win the prize.<\/p>\n In the same timeframe, a total of twenty-five $200,000 student scholarships will be distributed to student teams competing.<\/p>\n The remaining $80M in Purses will be distributed as follows:<\/p>\n 1) Grand prize Winner (1st<\/sup>\u00a0Place): $50M<\/p>\n 2) 2nd<\/sup>\u00a0Place: $20M<\/p>\n 3) 3rd<\/sup>\u00a0Place: $10M<\/p>\n Teams can submit entries across natural, engineer and hybrid solutions. Judges in the competition will evaluate the teams based upon four basic criteria:<\/p>\n 1) A working carbon removal prototype that can be rigorously validated capable of removing at least 1 ton per day.<\/p>\n 2) The team\u2019s ability to demonstrate to the judges that their solution can economically scale to the gigaton level.<\/p>\n 3) The main metric for this competition is fully considered cost per ton, inclusive of whatever considerations are necessary for environmental benefit, permanence, any value-added products; and<\/p>\n 4) The final criteria is the length of time that the removed carbon is locked up for. A minimum goal of 100 years is desired.<\/p>\n \u201cOur Earth\u2019s changing climate is a fundamental threat to humanity. But it\u2019s not too late if we take action NOW! Human imagination and creativity can shape a brighter and more sustainable future on this planet we call home,\u201d said Anousheh Ansari, CEO of XPRIZE. \u201cBy partnering with Elon and the Musk Foundation, we will crowdsource cost-effective solutions that can scale massively in the real world. Through XPRIZE Carbon Removal competition, the teams are invited to make history and become our climate heroes by reshaping our future.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are expecting a huge array and diversity of teams from around the world to register and compete. What\u2019s beautiful about an XPRIZE competition is the diversity of approaches taken by the teams. This is a great fit for carbon removal because there are so many ways to pull CO2 out of the air and our oceans. We expect to see approaches like engineered direct air capture, mineralization and enhanced weathering, natural solutions based on plants, trees, or ocean-focused solutions. We want as many viable scalable demonstrations now so we can all help the best solutions get to deployment as soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"