Carbon removal project developer Deep Sky has delivered the first certified direct air capture (DAC) carbon removal credits in North America to offtakers Microsoft and Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), marking a milestone for the region’s carbon removal market. The credits are a result of Deep Sky's Deep Sky Alpha project in Alberta and certified by Isometric's Direct Air Capture Protocol.

The development follows the increased focus on direct air capture, carbon removal technology, carbon credits, permanent carbon storage, and climate solutions, as businesses seek to tackle the residual greenhouse gas emissions. Headquartered in Montreal, Deep Sky is working on carbon removal projects in Canada through a variety of methods such as DAC and ocean carbon capture, founded in 2022.

The first milestone for the Deep Sky Alpha project is completed, marking the project's first carbon storage step.

The certified credits were produced by Deep Sky's Deep Sky Alpha facility in Innisfail, Alberta, where it permanently injects its first tonnes of atmospheric carbon dioxide underground. The milestone has been recognized 18 months after the project was under construction and marks the first DAC project in North America to earn carbon removal credits through Isometric, which has been independently verified.

The project will show the potential of direct air capture technologies to remove CO₂ directly from the air and store it permanently underground. Under Deep Sky's technology-agnostic carbon removal development, it has been collaborating with various DAC technology providers.

It has been verified under Isometric protocol.

The carbon credits generated by the project were certified through the Direct Air Capture Protocol set by Isometric, which demands projects record emissions that can be attributed to the carbon removal process, and quantify the net amount of carbon removed from the atmosphere.

There are also provisions for long-term monitoring to ensure that the carbon dioxide captured is securely held. Deep Sky says the verification process gives an assessment of the durability and impact of the carbon removal activity.

The company has been working to showcase the different steps in the carbon removal process, from developing the project to deploying the technology and storing the carbon underground, said Alex Petre, CEO of Deep Sky.

Throughout the project, from breaking ground at Deep Sky Alpha to running several different DAC technologies, to permanently sequestering carbon underground, we've been open about the steps we needed to take to build this industry and shared our progress along the way,” Petre said.

The Microsoft and RBC deals are set up to run until 2034.

The certified credits are the first of the carbon removal supply commitments Deep Sky has under its carbon removal agreements with Microsoft and RBC that are scheduled to continue through 2034.

Deep Sky has several large buyers in its $2.5 billion offtake agreements, including Microsoft and RBC, and has inked further deals with Google via Frontier Climate and other institutions.

The agreements show evidence of growing corporate interest in carbon removal credits, given the growing need for these products to help companies respond to emissions that can't be reduced through current reduction efforts.

Deep Sky focuses on large scale carbon removal capacity

Deep Sky's mission is to create large-scale carbon removal initiatives that can capture massive amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The company is working on several carbon removal pathways in Canada, such as ocean-based carbon removal and direct air capture.

Its long-term goal is to create projects that can sequester gigatonnage of CO2 and facilitate permanent carbon capture and storage, the company said.

Certifications viewed as a step towards broader deployment of DAC.

The certification is a significant milestone for the direct air capture space in North America, said Eamon Jubbawy, CEO and Co-founder of Isometric.

For the first time in North America, DAC is rigorously certified, as it is the first pathway to yield CCP-labelled certificates in the world. It's a very important node in the equation in terms of what it means for the tech to be really useful, Jubbawy said.

He continued that certification may facilitate the development of additional projects and boost the number of expected carbon removal credit issuances in the future as the industry grows.

As carbon removal technologies continue to grow and evolve across the globe, the provision of Deep Sky's certified DAC credits is aligned with investment in companies and institutions of technologies to lower CO2 levels in the atmosphere and to enable long-term climate strategies.