Geospatial analysis of regional climate impacts to accelerate cost-efficient direct air capture deployment

Carbon dioxide (CO2) removal from the atmospheric will be essential if we are to achieve net-zero emissions targets. Direct air capture (DAC) is a CO2 removal method with the potential for large-scale deployment. How-ever, DAC operational costs, and thus deployment potential, is dependent on performance, which can vary under different climate conditions. Here, to further develop our understanding of the impact of regional climate variation on DAC performance, we use high-resolution hourly based global weather profiles between 2016 and 2020 and weighted average capital costs to obtain DAC regional performance and levelized cost of DAC (LCOD). We found that relatively cold and drier regions have favorable DAC performance. Moreover, approximately 25% of the world's land is potentially unsuitable due to very cold ambient temperatures for a substantial part of the year. For the remaining regions, the estimated LCOD is $320-$540 per tCO2 at an electricity cost of $50 MWh-1. Our results improve the understanding of regional DAC performance, which can provide valuable insights for sustainable DAC deployment and effective climate action.

Automated summary

Direct air capture (DAC) is a potential CO2 removal method with large-scale deployment capability. Our study shows that DAC performs better in relatively cold and drier regions. However, approximately 25% of the world's land is unsuitable for DAC due to extremely cold ambient temperatures.