A recent announcement revealed that the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED) will provide the South Texas DAC Hub, with up to $500 million. This will be provided in order to support the development of this Hub.

The arrangement for this funding, is that it will be supplied in multiple tranches. This system will start with an initial award of $50 million and this will go towards advancing 1PointFive’s ongoing work, which is currently occurring at the South Texas DAC Hub. This work includes tasks such as engineering, permitting, the procurement of long-lead equipment, whilst also continuing to encourage community engagement, which is being done in order to further 1PointFive’s community benefits plan. This plan is important because it is dedicated to providing opportunities for local hiring, workforce development and educational initiatives.

Texas, specifically King Ranch in Kleberg County, is where 1PointFive’s South Texas DAC Hub is located and it is here that a DAC facility will be hosted. This DAC facility will have an initial removal capacity of 500,000 metric tons of CO2 on an annual basis and on top of this ability, this facility is already planning to develop a build-out to more than one million metric tons on an annual basis, at some point in the near future. Currently the site has an estimated capacity to grow and develop up to three million metric tons of CO2 removal every year and this would be possible through DAC. Along with the option of using DAC, this expansion would also be possible through securely storing an estimated three billion metric tons of CO2 in saline formations.

President and CEO Vicki Hollub, Occidental, commented, “Large-scale Direct Air Capture is one of the most important technologies that will help organizations and society achieve their net zero goals. This award demonstrates how the U.S. Department of Energy is committed to realizing the full potential of DAC and its confidence in the South Texas DAC Hub to deliver CO2 removal at a climate-relevant scale.”