Aera Energy LLC announced today that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) awarded Aera Federal LLC a $2.8 million cooperative agreement contract as part of the department’s Regional Direct Air Capture (DAC) Hubs Initiatives, which aim to demonstrate the capture, processing, delivery, and storage or end-use of captured carbon.
The award will help fund a feasibility study to establish the viability of DAC as a business and technology for large-scale California decarbonization; and identify optimal pathways, technologies, and partners to scale DAC, according to a news release. Funded mostly by the US Department of Energy and partly by Aera, the study is slated to begin in May 2024 and end in April 2026.
The Aera DAC Hub located in the Kern County Belridge Oil Field aims to be one of the first projects in development as part of California’s full-scale DAC plus storage (DAC+S) network of regional hubs. “We are excited the DOE has provided this funding to assess the feasibility of the Aera DAC Hub, in support of California’s efforts to achieve its ambitious climate goals,” said Aera President and CEO Erik Bartsch. “DAC is an important technology with potential to profitably contribute to decarbonization goals while supporting Kern County’s vital economy, providing quality good-paying union jobs and benefiting working families throughout our communities.”
The Aera (DAC) Hub will be designed to capture carbon emissions from ambient air and safely transport and store them at Aera’s storage site. By integrating capture technology, lower-carbon energy sources, existing and new infrastructure to build an innovative lower-carbon supply chain, the hub is expected to help the Golden State achieve its carbon neutrality goal.
Aera Federal, Battelle Memorial Institute with partners Mosaic Materials Inc., and CarbonCapture Inc. will work with the DOE to bring the proposed DAC hub one step closer to reality. This work will inform future DAC opportunities in California and will contribute to the nation’s ongoing rollout of clean energy technologies.
