STOREGGA SIGNS CUSTOMER MOU FOR DIRECT AIR CAPTURE WITH VIRGIN ATLANTIC

The signing of the MoU demonstrates the accelerating commercial interest from the aviation and other sectors in DAC technology combined with geological storage ("DACCS"). Storegga's DAC facility offers Virgin Atlantic, and other businesses that are challenging to decarbonise directly, an effective way to address their carbon footprint and progress towards net zero targets.

DAC provides a high quality, cost-effective way to permanently eliminate CO2 emissions from the atmosphere. It also provides a reliable way to remove CO2 emissions from the past, making it a tool to support not only net zero targets, but also ambitions to achieve net negative emissions and full climate restoration.

Storegga, with its technical partner Carbon Engineering, are designing a 1 MTPA DAC in North East Scotland. For businesses that cannot capture or reduce all of their carbon emissions at source, Storegga will be supplying an equivalent DAC physical removal of CO2emissions by capturing and permanently storing carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere.

Nick Cooper, CEO Storegga said:

"We are really pleased to welcome Virgin Atlantic as an early DAC customer. It is excellent that Virgin have chosen to embrace DAC as an offsetting solution and to support our facility in North-East Scotland; Europe's first at scale deployment of DAC.

The need for high quality, permanent, engineered offsetting is clear. To reach our net zero goals and prevent significant temperature rises, we need utilise all the tools available to us. Technical offsetting with DAC is urgently needed at scale to sit alongside nature-based offsetting. Last week's IPCC report is an alarm call to all of us. The quicker we wake up to this, the better our chances of reaching net zero."

Juha Jarvinen, Chief Commercial Officer at Virgin Atlantic said:

"Innovation and sustainability leadership is firmly in our DNA and we're excited to be the first in the aviation industry to partner with Storegga to progress the development of Direct Air Capture solutions in the UK. Reducing Virgin Atlantic's carbon footprint is our number one climate action priority and the removal of CO2 directly from the atmosphere has the potential to become a powerful tool in reaching our target of net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

"We hope that early adoption of this technology and development of a facility here in the UK will demonstrate the commercial potential of DAC and inspire other businesses to be involved. Virgin Atlantic's commitment to the facility complements the range of innovative partnerships we have developed to further our sustainability goals including working with technology providers for Sustainable Aviation Fuels and zero-carbon flight."

Storegga and its partner, Carbon Engineering, a leading DAC provider and developer of the technology, have commenced preliminary engineering and design of the proposed UK facility. The facility aims to permanently remove one million tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere annually. Targeted for North-East Scotland, the proposed facility will be the first large-scale facility of its kind in Europe and is targeting first operations for 2026.

The development of the proposed DAC facility in North East Scotland will help the UK decarbonise and achieve critical net zero targets by delivering a flexible new tool to add to the global climate toolkit. When combined with geological storage, DAC technology delivers the permanent and verifiable removal of CO2 from the air, reversing the emissions process. The highly scalable technology can be used to meet the ever-increasing demand for CO2 removal that is independent of the constraints of nature-based solutions. Whilst nature-based solutions have a material effect on reducing global emissions, DAC technology provides a complementary solution to the climate toolkit that can deliver climate-stabilising quantities of permanent carbon removal and help address the world's most difficult sources of emissions.