Carbon Streaming, a company specializing in carbon credits, has recently entered into a partnership with Microsoft. In this collaboration, Carbon Streaming will supply Microsoft with up to 10,000 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide removal credits annually from the Waverly Biochar project located in Waverly, Virginia.
Biochar, also known as biological charcoal, is produced by heating organic materials like forest residue, wood, or agricultural waste without oxygen. This process creates a stable form of carbon that, when buried in the soil, effectively sequesters carbon for centuries, while also enhancing soil fertility. The Waverly Biochar project, developed by Restoration Bioproducts LLC, involves the construction of a facility for producing biochar and is expected to remove more than 262,000 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions over its 25-year project lifespan. Carbon Streaming will receive royalties from the biochar produced and sold by the project.
This agreement represents an extension of Microsoft’s efforts to build a portfolio of carbon removal initiatives. It aligns with the company’s goal to achieve carbon negativity by 2030 and eliminate all of its historical emissions by 2050. Microsoft recently entered into one of the largest-ever Direct Air Capture (DAC) carbon removal agreements with DAC technology company Heirloom and has also announced DAC-related agreements with climate tech firm CarbonCapture, startup Climeworks, and an agreement for ocean-based carbon dioxide removal with Running Tide. Additionally, Microsoft has secured an agreement to purchase 2.76 million metric tonnes of carbon removal from Danish energy provider Ørsted, focused on capturing and storing biogenic carbon from a wood chip-fired power station in Denmark.
In Microsoft’s recently published Carbon Removal briefing paper, Biochar is described as a critical component of their medium-duration carbon removal strategy, bridging the gap between shorter-duration solutions like afforestation and longer-duration but higher-cost solutions like DAC. Many carbon capture and storage solutions, including biochar, are currently in their early stages and have limited scalability. Corporate commitments to purchase carbon removal credits from these projects play a crucial role in driving demand and enabling these solutions to scale up. Carbon Streaming employs streaming transactions to provide project funding to developers and allows companies to commit to buying credits generated by these projects without the need for upfront capital investment.
