Microsoft For CCS Offtake

Microsoft announced an offtake agreement with Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) and Vestforbraending to receive 3.25 million tons (2.95 million tonnes) of engineered carbon removal in a multi-year purchase from Project Gaia Carbon Capture (Gaia), a joint venture between CIP and Vestforbraending. Located in the greater Copenhagen region of Denmark, Gaia will retrofit carbon capture and storage (CCS) at an existing waste-to-energy facility to expand district heating capacity to an additional 10,000 homes.

The agreement with Microsoft marks one of the first long term multi-year offtakes signed for a waste to energy carbon capture storage retrofit, demonstrating the commercial viability of a decarbonization pathway for the waste to energy industry.

The 2.95 million tonne offtake is for up to full volumes of carbon removals generated per year starting from 2029. The Carbon Removal Units (CRUs) represent the biogenic portion of carbon dioxide CO₂ (such portion determined through the well-established radiocarbon method) captured and stored, net of process emissions. The sale of CRUs is a key enabler for Gaia to capture and store up to 551,156 tons (500,000 tonnes) of biogenic and fossil CO₂ a year. Given that Denmark is regulated by the EU Waste Framework Directive, the CO₂ captured and stored represents unavoidable fraction of waste after all aspects of the waste mitigation hierarchy has been met.

“We are proud to work alongside Microsoft for the sale and purchase of permanent carbon removals,” said Nikos Samaritis, managing director at CIP. “This agreement, through Gaia, marks the first agreement between CIP, through CI ETF I, and Microsoft and we are optimistic it represents the start of a long-term relationship between the parties. The agreement is also significant for CIP as it represents the first offtake transaction by CIP for environmental attributes (e.g CRU), signaling CIP’s growing role in the development of new environmental products and technologies.”

“The offtake agreement with Microsoft is a defining milestone for the Gaia project,” said Steen Neuchs Vedel, chief executive officer of Vestforbrænding. “It not only validates the technical and commercial maturity that Vestforbrænding has worked hard to establish but also reflects how this maturity has been further strengthened through CIP’s entry into the project. It affirms the strength of our partnership with CIP and demonstrates why we chose to join forces—combining our operational expertise with their ability to scale and deliver complex infrastructure. Together, CIP, Microsoft and Vestforbrænding are showing a way forward for carbon capture from waste-to-energy to play a central role in Europe’s decarbonization journey.”

“Gaia’s approach of retrofitting waste-to-energy facilities—in combination with the enforcement of the EU Waste Framework Directive—helps unlock more carbon-free energy while ensuring waste prevention and recycling remain top priorities,” said Brian Marrs, senior director of energy & carbon removal at Microsoft. “We’re pleased to see experienced developers like Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, through its Energy Transition Fund entering the carbon removal market and look forward to ongoing collaboration.”