SpaceX owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk introduces himself as he arrives on the red carpet for the Axel Springer Awards in Berlin, on December 1, 2020.
Britta Pedersen | AFP | Getty Images
Elon Musk tweeted on Thursday that he would “donate $ 100 million for a prize for the best carbon capture technology.”
The Tesla and SpaceX boss did not provide any details beyond the tweet, but said: “next week details.” Cash rewards for innovation prizes are not new. The XPRIZE Foundation, for example, is a non-profit organization that facilitates cash prizes to drive innovation.
So, what is carbon capture technology?
Carbon capture, use and storage or sequestration (CCUS), often abbreviated to ‘carbon capture’, is a process of capturing carbon emissions, storing or reusing them, to prevent the release of emissions into the atmosphere.
Excessive carbon dioxide gases prevent the heat from escaping the earth’s atmosphere and causing global warming. Since the Industrial Revolution, human activity has increased atmospheric carbon dioxide by 47% and is, according to NASA, ‘the most important long-term’ compulsion ‘of climate change.
Ahmed F. Ghoniem, a professor at MIT who has a research interest in CO2 capture technologies, is a very good idea to use a competition to promote innovation in technology capture. Innovation in carbon capture technology is needed to ‘reduce the cost and complexity of the technology and improve overall efficiency’, he told CNBC in an email.
Carbon capture is not new. There are currently 21 CCUS large-scale commercial projects around the world, according to the International Energy Agency, an intergovernmental energy organization in Paris. The first one was set up in 1972.
So far, carbon capture has been a disappointment.
“The story of CCUS was largely one of unfulfilled expectations: the potential to mitigate climate change has been recognized for decades, but implementation is slow and has therefore had only a limited impact on global CO.2 emissions, ”says the International Energy Agency.
But that can change. “There are clear signs that CCUS could rise,” the IEA said.
The US federal government ‘supports research and development’ of carbon capture, as well as the viability of geological sites to store and assess carbon, and to develop technology to better understand what happens to carbon when stored for long periods of time be, according to the Department of Energy.
Telsa did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
Musk, who according to Forbes is currently worth $ 180 billion, has signed The Giving Pledge, a public commitment to billionaires to give away most of their wealth to philanthropy, but has so far made no significant contribution to charity. especially not compared to other billionaires. such as Warren Buffett and Bill Gates.