Why EDP invested in Captura
“This century we’d need to build a CDR industry that rivals the scale of today’s global automobile sector to put us on track to achieve the Paris Agreement Temperature Goals.” — IPCC
Ambitious climate scenarios underscore the global imperative to decarbonize urgently, with the goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. Even in the most ambitious scenarios, massive renewable generation rollout and energy efficiency scale-up are not enough to get us to that point. There’s a gap of 5 to 10 billion tonnes of CO2 — and that’s where carbon removal may come into play. Traditional methods like reforestation offer only short-term and insufficient solutions. Faced with the escalating climate crisis, the world urgently seeks innovative solutions to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions (GGE) and achieve net-zero carbon neutrality within a limited timeframe.
While progress has been made in reducing emissions, Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) technologies will play a crucial role in meeting these targets. In essence, that explains EDP Ventures’ investment in Captura, a groundbreaking company developing Direct Ocean Capture (DOC) technology at the forefront of this transformative effort. With a recent $21.5 million expansion to its Series A funding round, the company will continue developing its DOC technology, harnessing the power of the ocean to absorb CO2 from the atmosphere. With two successful smaller-scale operational pilots in California, the company will scale up its technology pilot program to commercial plants, with a system to be installed in Norway during the fall of 2024, in partnership with Equinor, boasting a capture capacity of 1000 tons of CO2 annually.
The concentration of CO2 in the ocean is 150 times greater compared to that of the atmosphere. DOC allows captured CO2 to be permanently stored or transformed into other products with lower greenhouse gas emissions for the industry, thus assisting the most challenging sectors in decarbonization. Part of EDP Ventures’ competencies is detecting disruptive companies in promising fields and Captura stands out through the following:
1. No negative impact on the ocean: The DOC system is designed to have no negative environmental impact, removing CO2 from seawater without harming marine ecosystems, producing undesirable byproducts, or causing ocean acidification, as opposed to other competing technologies.
2. Amplify the ocean’s natural absorption: By removing excess CO2 from the ocean, the system boosts its natural capability to continue absorbing CO2, creating capacity for additional drawdown of CO2 from the atmosphere.
3. Minimize curtailment: The system is designed to operate in conjunction with renewable energy sources, minimizing curtailment by utilizing excess renewable electricity when available, and idling the system when it’s not.
4. Top-tier team: Last but not least, led by Steve Oldham, a specialist in scaling up CDR companies, Captura’s team brings together expertise and experience from Caltech and the energy sector.
EDP has committed to achieve 100% renewable generation by 2030 and Net Zero emissions by 2040. To support and stimulate open innovation in the energy sector, EDP Ventures, as the corporate venture capital arm of the EDP Group, invests in early-stage startups with the potential to impact the lives of millions of people. In line with its climate targets, EDP is following the SBTi’s Net-Zero Standards, which contemplate the use of carbon offsets in the short, medium, and long term.
Captura’s impressive list of investors and partners signals that we may be in the presence of a game-changing solution that will fulfill the promise of DOC as a key enabler to mitigate climate change. The company has received funding from top-tier investors, including, and besides EDP Ventures, Maersk, and Eni Next, as well as from Future Planet Capital, Equinor Ventures, FreeFlow Ventures, Hitachi Ventures, Aramco Ventures, mTerra Ventures, and the EIC Rose Rock Venture Fund. This outstanding financial backing, combined with the strategic guidance of EDP Ventures and other partners, will hopefully contribute towards Captura’s goal: to accelerate the development and deployment of DOC technology at scale.
Captura’s DOC technology represents a significant leap forward in the field of carbon removal. With its scalability, sustainability, and efficiency, the DOC process has the potential to play a pivotal role in achieving climate goals. EDP Ventures’ investment is a testament to the transformative power of this technology and its potential to make a real impact on the fight against climate change. As Captura continues to advance its technology, we can envision a future where carbon removal is a mainstream solution to our environmental challenges.
Learn more about Captura’s investment round here — https://capturacorp.com/captura-raises-us21-5m-with-investments-from-maersk-eni-next-and-edp/
EDP Ventures — https://www.edp.com/en/innovation/edp-ventures
And about EDP’s goals — https://www.edp.com/en/about-us
EDP is stepping up renewable capacity growth to about 4.5 GW per year, adding about 18 GW of new capacity to 33 GW by 2026, aiming to exceed 50 GW by 2030.
To achieve this target, EDP is planning a gross investment of €25 billion for the 2023–26 period, including around €21 billion (85%) in renewable energy sources and around €4 billion (15%) in distribution grids.
The goal of diversifying the portfolio by investing in different renewable technologies remains unchanged: onshore wind (40%), utility-scale solar (40%), solar distributed generation (12%), offshore wind (5%), and batteries + hydrogen (3%).
