Carbon TerraVault Holdings, LLC (CTV), a subsidiary of California Resources Corporation, announced today that the California Direct Air Capture (DAC) Hub has been selected to receive $11.8 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) under its Regional DAC Hubs Initiative.

This first DOE amount will be used to perform front end engineering design studies in 2024 on the proposed DAC facilities in Kern County, followed by additional funding requests and planned development and construction potentially beginning in 2025. The DOE funding also allows the California DAC Hub to be eligible for additional funding from the California Energy Commission.

The first hub is planned to launch in Kern County, California and the consortium will look to expand to other locations across the state. Each hub is expected to provide tangible energy transition benefits to the surrounding communities, such as high-paying and permanent jobs and workforce development programs, to help California progress toward its 2030 and 2045 carbon removal goals.

The California DAC Hub is led by CTV Direct LLC, Kern Community College District and EPRI. The California DAC Hub consortium is comprised of approximately 40 organizations from various sectors with the goal of accelerating the commercialization of atmospheric CO2 removal via integrated capture, processing, transport, and secure permanent geologic storage.

“The next phase of the energy transition will require both emerging low-carbon technologies and the infrastructure to support them,” Neva Espinoza, vice president, energy supply and low-carbon resources at EPRI said in a press release. “This consortium aims to drive fundamental advancements on both fronts through a collaborative focus on direct air capture technology and the CO2 sequestration required to realize its carbon reduction benefits.”