The four-year global competition invites teams from anywhere to create and demonstrate solutions that can pull carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere or oceans
Drasa, Fiji, 20-Jul-2021 – Totoka Islands, which develops agroforestry operations in remote areas of Fiji, based on a sustainable ecosystem of diversified forests creating a natural landscape that grows the resources that are being utilized selectively from time to time, has officially registered for the $100M XPRIZE Carbon Removal, aimed at tackling climate change by asking global innovators to develop solutions that can pull carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere or oceans and lock it away permanently in an environmentally benign method.
Officially launched on Earth Day 2021, XPRIZE Carbon Removal is a four year global competition. To win the $50M grand prize, the winning teams must demonstrate a working solution at a scale of at least 1000 tonnes removed per year; model their costs at a scale of 1 million tonnes per year; and show a pathway to achieving a scale of gigatonnes per year in future. All demonstrations must be validated by a third party.
“The goal of this CO2 Removal XPRIZE is to turn ideas into demonstration, and turn powerpoint solutions into hardware,” said Peter H. Diamandis, founder and executive chairman of XPRIZE. “By launching the largest prize competition in history, our hope is to focus the brainpower of engineers, scientists and entrepreneurs around the world to build solutions that actually work, at low-cost and at massive scale.”
Throughout the competition, $100 million in prize purses will be distributed in the following manner:
Teams can enter the competition at any stage. XPRIZE is looking for the best solutions, whether they competed in earlier rounds or not. After 1 year of competition the judges will review the progress of competitors at that time and award up to 15 Milestone Prizes of $1 million each.
XPRIZE will also award up to US$5M to student teams in the Fall of 2021. These awards may fund participation in the XPRIZE Carbon Removal or the development of key supportive technologies.
In 2024, after developing their solutions, teams are invited to apply to be considered as Finalists, and be visited by XPRIZE to validate their solution’s performance in person. In 2025 after 4 years, judges will select the winners:
- US$50 million paid to the single Grand Prize Winner
- US$30 million to be distributed among up to 3 runners up
For more information on XPRIZE Carbon Removal, to view the prize guidelines or to register, please visit https://www.xprize.org/prizes/elonmusk