Climeworks, a Swiss direct air capture (DAC) startup, completed commercial operations at its first-gen technology facility, Capricorn, located in Hinwil, Switzerland.

Capricorn, the world’s first commercial-scale DAC facility, provides customers with CO2 for utilization. The groundbreaking of Capricorn, dates to May 2017, when Climeworks started initial operations to permanently remove CO2, via its proprietary direct air capture and storage (DAC+S) technology. In 2019, Climeworks signed up Coca-Cola HBC Switzerland Ltd as its second customer for carbon utilization, following its initial customer, Gebrüder Meier AG, a Swiss-based motor repairs company.

Analyst QuickTake: Climeworks scaled up its DAC technology from Capricorn to gigaton scale with the launch of Orca , the world’s first DAC+S plant in September 2021. The company also announced the launch of Mammoth , the world’s largest DAC+S plant, to permanently remove CO2 in June 2022. Both plants are located in Iceland, with Carbfix serving as the company’s storage partner to permanently sequester CO2. Climeworks has also undertaken DAC+S project development in Oman, Norway, and the USA.