After a year of negotiations, the Department of Energy (DOE) has made its second award to a commercial-scale DAC hub, 1PointFive’s South Texas hub, as part of the Regional Direct Air Capture Hubs program. In March of 2024, Project Cypress was the first megaton hub to receive an official award from the program. Now that the South Texas hub has received its $50 million from DOE, the project will begin phase 2 of the four-phase hubs process.
This blog will explore the project details we’ve learned from the award announcement, as well as broader implications for the program and field.
Project details and considerations
Located in Kleberg County, Texas, the South Texas DAC hub partnered with King Ranch to access 106,000 acres of land and will use Carbon Engineering’s DAC technology to meet an initial removal capacity of 500,000 tons of CO2 each year. Long-term, the project has a strategy to build a hub with an estimated storage capacity of 3 billion tons. Over the next two years, developers will work to secure permits for construction and CO2 storage, begin engineering design work, make initial equipment orders, and kickoff community engagement sessions, all while the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations oversees progress to ensure the hub meets both technical and community merits.
Continued communication about project updates from the hub will be integral to its success. While DAC hubs have the potential to offer substantial public value, they are expensive, high risk, and cost shared by taxpayers, requiring clear and continued demonstrations of value through transparent information sharing.
Looking at the region
As this hub develops, it is crucial developers keep in mind local realities. South Texas is experiencing population growth alongside regional droughts, so water availability will be an important metric for this project to monitor and report on. Carbon removal projects should not create or exacerbate water scarcity. Another resource of note: energy. There are still some unknowns about the energy sources and usage for this project. Access to 24/7 renewable energy is critical for DAC, so we want to see how and where 1PointFive is meeting the project’s energy needs now, how they will ensure they don’t add to energy burdens, and how the project will meet its energy demands at the megaton scale.
Though the Hubs program requires a removal rate of 1 million tons per year, the South Texas DAC hub stated the intention and technical ability to build a hub that could remove up to 30 million tons of CO2 yearly and store 3 billion tons. While this is an ambitious goal and would contribute towards global removal goals, 1PointFive’s ability to navigate how they might achieve this scale is key. Leveraging their industries’ skills, resources, and network, 1PointFive will need to consider the importance of integrating the latest science, technology, and cost learnings that will occur in the field, and in their specific project over this potential scale-up.
Details on community engagement commitments
The South Texas DAC hub has made public a range of intentions for its community engagement activities. Though some are more clearly defined than others, these benefits are a sound start to what is anticipated to be a series of community benefit summaries for CDR projects. That said, it is early days, and we are left with some questions we hope can be answered in the following months.
Community collaboration
1PointFive is assembling a Community Advisory Body (CAB) to support and shape its South Texas DAC hub’s development. The CAB will be composed of community members, with specific attention towards recruiting those from historically disadvantaged groups. From serving as a “conduit for the public” to developing a schedule for community outreach events, the CAB will be intricately involved in shaping understanding of this work. Once project-specific outreach events commence, 1PointFive has stated it will encourage two-way engagement with residents to inform how the developer will commit to accountability and the equitable distribution of project benefits.
1PointFive has not detailed how they plan to recruit, compensate, and provide language access for CAB members, brief them honestly and with independent technical assistance on critical project considerations, and ensure they’re not used as a buffer between the project team and the public. They also still have to define which project components are up for community influence, and what collaborative decision-making processes (e.g., majority, consent, consensus) will be used. While engagement has been happening since 2022, there hasn’t yet been public reporting on who’s already been engaged, how things have gone, what the project team learned, and how the project has been subsequently changed, if at all.
Workforce partnerships
Complementary to community engagement efforts are those that aim to boost workforce growth and development. In its second phase, the South Texas DAC hub will begin outreach for labor partnerships including underrepresented businesses and Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs). Moreover, this project promises “quality jobs, local hiring, and workforce development” to boost its relevance and appeal to Kleberg County residents.
Word choice matters, and 1PointFive oscillates between “equal” versus “equitable” access to jobs and careers, which should ideally always be the latter so historically disadvantaged community members are given the support they need to compete fairly. The types of community and workforce agreements 1PointFive looks to negotiate are vague, and we encourage them to pursue legally binding agreements that give communities the power to define the project benefits, negotiate harm mitigation approaches, co-create governance structures, and hold 1Point5 accountable. While unions are not mentioned, we hope 1PointFive will explore support for unionized labor and unionization options for the hub workforce. Unions are important for enshrining workers’ power and ensuring high-quality wages, benefits, and safeguards, and the longevity of employment opportunities.
Data reporting
1PointFive plans to create a public-facing website containing updates on project activities like air permit compliance reports, safety and emergency response protocols, and employee health and safety plans. In offering this platform, 1PointFive is showing early indications of valuing transparency and accountability in its project operations. With this information, residents of Kleberg County will have access to critical information needed to meaningfully engage throughout these nascent project stages.
The publication timeline, update cadence, feedback mechanisms, and online/offline accessibility (important for communities with limited internet access or during times of crisis) for the project’s data reporting platform are still to be revealed. To set themselves up for more fluid engagement and trust-building, 1PointFive should consider adding 1) a public record of all substantive project feedback they receive (including timestamps and attribution, their response, and subsequent project changes, or if none, then explanations of why not), and 2) a public forum where stakeholders can engage with each other on project topics.
As the South Texas DAC hub continues its rollout, it’s critical for these offerings to be communicated widely and be open to influence from future community perspectives. Although still in planning stages, if executed well, these promises could spell out generational benefits for locals. While project details are in early stages and there are still unknowns, much of what has been offered appears to be consistent with what DOE is requiring in community benefits plans. For now, our eyes are on ensuring transparency and accountability in the future as this stream of DOE funding materializes. We encourage 1PointFive to share their full community benefits plan, barring business-sensitive details.
Looking ahead
1PointFive’s South Texas DAC hub is an opportunity to model innovation, open and transparent practices for sharing information, building meaningful community engagement and decision-making, and supporting economic and workforce development. It will be vital for 1PointFive to work with communities around the hub in planning, research, monitoring, and reinvestment for the future 30 million ton hub.
Carbon180 will be doing a deep dive on the DAC Hubs program in the coming weeks: where it is now, where it needs to go, and its impact on the industry to this point. To learn more about what 1PointFive has been up to so far with South Texas communities and to sign up for updates on the CAB, visit their website.
Edited by Emily Reich. Image by Robert Richarz.
