(3 Minutes Read)
Namibia’s Kelp Blue is among the forerunners for the USD 50 million grand prize to be announced in 2025. The XPRIZE is a four-year, USD100 million global competition open to innovators and teams that can create and demonstrate solutions for pulling carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere or oceans and sequestering it durably and sustainably.
Kelp Blue is a sustainable oceanic aquaculture enterprise founded in 2020 at Lüderitz, Namibia, and harvests kelp canopy year-round to produce alternative agri-food, bio-stimulant, and textile products, converting them into a variety of products, including bio-stimulants.
The grand prize from XPRIZE will be granted to the candidate that demonstrates a working solution at a scale of at least 1,000 tonnes removed per year, models their costs at a scale of 1 million tonnes per year, and can show a pathway to achieving a scale of gigatonnes per year in the future.
Kelp Blue is thrilled to be shortlisted for XPRIZE Carbon Removal’s grand prize out of 1,300 vetted submissions. Kelp Blue project achieves several things: locking away carbon, restoring and enriching marine biodiversity, and bringing meaningful diverse employment opportunities to fragile coastal economies—thereby reducing extractive pressures on marine resources, stated Kelp Blue Founder and CEO, Daniel Hooft. As move into the final stage of this prestigious competition, Kelp Blue will be able to showcase itself as a viable, proven, and sustainable solution to combating climate change while contributing to local economies and livelihoods. To make a positive change and impact on the environment, one need a collaborative effort and a diverse range of high-quality carbon removal solutions to avoid the worst effects of climate change.
This cohort of exceptional teams represents a diversity of innovations and solutions across a range of CDR pathways and shows the significant progress the industry is making in a short period of time. Over the past three years, this competition has helped accelerate the pace of technology development for a whole new industry of high-potential solutions aimed at reversing climate change.
Read Also:
https://trendsnafrica.com/namibian-startup-kelp-blue-shortlisted-for-uae-climate-action-award-2/
https://trendsnafrica.com/kelp-blue-targets-n1-4bn-blue-bond-with-the-namibian-stock-exchange-nsx/
https://trendsnafrica.com/pilot-on-giant-kelp-processing-plant-in-namibia-by-mid-2023/
For the world to effectively address greenhouse gas emissions, carbon removal is an essential element of the path to Net Zero. There’s no way to reverse humanity’s impact on the climate without extracting carbon from our atmosphere and oceans. We need a range of bold, innovative CDR solutions to manage the vast quantities of CO2 released into our environment and impacting our planet. The teams that have been competing for this Prize are all part of building a set of robust and effective solutions. Twenty teams advancing to the final stage of XPRIZE Carbon Removal will have an opportunity to demonstrate their potential to have a significant impact on the climate.
