VGrid Energy Systems has listed its Lost Hills, California, sustainable electricity site on Puro.earth’s Accelerate program, which will help the company raise $9 million through carbon removal credit sales.
Puro.earth is the first standard, registry, and B2B marketplace in the world focused solely on carbon removal. The platform allows CORC, or carbon removal, suppliers to secure market commitments to grow their business by issuing Pre-CORCs. Companies may purchase Pre-CORCs in order to prepay for carbon removal from a given project, such as VGrid’s Biocharger expansion, on the Puro.earth platform. Once carbon removal from a project is achieved and verified, companies can then use purchased CORCs to support their net-zero goals.
Puro.earth maintains the Puro Standard, which accounts for integrity in certifying carbon removal methods provided on their platform. The current carbon removal methodologies supported by the standard are biochar, carbonated materials, geologically stored cabon, enhanced rock weathering, and terrestrial storage of biomass. The company defines carbon removal as carbon that is captured from the atmosphere, stabilized, and stored durably — the company does not include reduced or avoided carbon emissions in the Puro Standard.
VGrid to Expand Biochar Carbon Removal Capacity
The CORC-raised funding will supply necessary capital to enable expansion of VGrid’s site, including addition of 30 Bioserver units that convert agricultural waste into clean electricity, biochar, and bio-liquids. The company’s use of biochar offers a long-term carbon storage option, capable of stabilizing carbon in the biomass for over 1,000 years. It also prevents carbon from reentering the atmosphere upon decomposition.
VGrid is already Puro.earth certified at its existing sites, which currently remove 2.92 tons of carbon for every ton of biochar. The company is able to build and deploy Bioservers in under five months, allowing them to meet local market needs significntly faster than large, centralized production plants. As Bioservers are placed at their given feedstock sources, transportation costs, and emissions are also avoided.
The expanded site will generate 12,500 CORCs each year along with 13.5 gigawatt hours of clean electricity.
According to Jeff Norton, vice president of business development at VGrid, the company’s long-term vision is to create a global network of 10,000 local production Bioserver sites. This would allow for widespread processing of forest and agricultural waste into clean energy while also sequestering a gigaton of carbon each year.