by Ben Tarbell, CEO and Co-Founder of Ebb Carbon
The rapid decline in the cost of deploying and scaling renewable energy projects has been nothing short of remarkable. In my lifetime, the price of a photovoltaic module has declined by over 99.6%, including an over 90% reduction in the last decade. Not surprisingly, this reduction in technology costs has coincided with massive industry growth – over five factors of ten in the last two decades.
The factors driving this trend are many, but a key macro force has been a collective sense of urgency and opportunity to develop a source of cleaner, more distributed and less expensive energy that can scale to address the climate crisis. This has created a powerful tailwind that has spurred technological innovation, and increased competition, economies of scale, and market incentives. All of these factors have played a critical role in driving down prices, catalyzing industry expansion, and making renewable energy more accessible. Today, renewable energy accounts for over 20% of all electricity generation in the United States and more than 83% of all new electricity generation capacity worldwide.
As we work to introduce the next generation of technology to counteract climate change at Ebb Carbon, I see a similar dynamic at play as the urgent need to remove billions of tons of already-emitted CO2 from the atmosphere has become increasingly clear. According to the UN-IPCC, in addition to rapidly reducing new emissions, we need to remove 10 billion tons of CO2 from the atmosphere every year by 2050 to prevent the worst impacts of climate change. This consensus is spurring incredible technological advancement; the growth of a competitive, healthy industry; advanced purchases of carbon removal credits from forward-thinking companies like Stripe and Microsoft; and the deployment of promising carbon dioxide removal technologies capable of scale. Governments and policy makers have also shown significant support for the industry's development.
These trends, which echo my experience in the rapid advancement of the renewable energy industry, are incredibly promising because they point to the potential for the carbon dioxide removal industry to grow at a similar rate as the solar industry did over the last two decades. If we can replicate that five factors of ten growth rate for carbon dioxide removal, we’ll be able to meet the challenge of removing 10 billion tons of CO2 per year needed by 2050.
It's an exciting time to be involved in the carbon dioxide removal industry, and we're thrilled that Ebb Carbon is growing alongside it. Today we’re announcing that we've secured $20 million in Series A funding to further develop our technology and start deploying Ebb systems. This is the largest investment in ocean-based carbon dioxide removal to date, and the funding will help us deploy our first system, capable of removing 100 tons of CO2 per year, later this year. We plan to deploy a system with 10x more capacity soon after.
We're proud to welcome Prelude Ventures, Evok Innovations, Congruent Ventures, and Incite to the Ebb family as our new investors, joining seed funder Grantham Environmental Trust. All are well-respected climate investors, and their support will be invaluable as we scale our business in the years to come.
While Ebb’s approach to removing CO2 from the atmosphere is novel technologically, it has been perfected over billions of years through the Earth’s natural processes. By accentuating natural processes in the vastness of the ocean, we see a highly scalable and cost-effective CO2 removal solution that is restorative and compatible with a sustainable future. We're thrilled to have the backing of our new investors and we look forward to deploying our first system in the coming months.