Microsoft has agreed to purchase 626,000 tons of carbon removal credits from Svante Technologies and Meadow Lake Tribal Council (MLTC) from a bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) project in Saskatchewan, Canada.

The credits will be delivered over a 15-year period, generated by the companies' North Star BECCS project. The project is being developed at the MLTC Bioenergy Center, a biomass power generation facility. The plant will be owned by North Star Carbon Solutions LP, a partnership between MLTC and Svante’s recently acquired subsidiary, Carbon Alpha.

According to the companies, at full capacity, the carbon capture plant will generate up to 90,000 tons of carbon credits annually. The captured carbon will be transported and permanently stored at an undisclosed geologic storage site owned and operated by North Star. Commercial operations at the plant are expected to commence in early 2029.

The companies claim that the credits delivered via the agreement will be independently verified and issued in accordance with carbon removal crediting standards and robust monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) practices.

“Meadow Lake Tribal Council welcomes Microsoft’s significant offtake commitment for the North Star project,” said Jeremy Norman, Tribal Chief, Meadow Lake Tribal Council. “As a Canadian Indigenous-owned BECCS project that is believed to be among the first of its kind, North Star reflects MLTC Nations’ long-standing commitment to land stewardship and sustainable forest management.”

“We’re pleased to work with North Star Carbon Solutions and Meadow Lake Tribal Council to help advance high-quality, durable carbon dioxide removal,” said Phillip Goodman, director of Carbon Removal Portfolio, Microsoft. “To meet our climate goals, we need to help scale solutions that deliver durable storage and are backed by rigorous monitoring and verification. This agreement supports an Indigenous-led collaboration that enables the infrastructure needed to bring durable carbon removal online in Canada, thus creating a pathway for additional projects over time.”

The deal is Microsoft’s latest with a carbon capture and storage firm, and it has already signed several agreements with similar projects.

Notable deals include a carbon removal deal with Gaia, a joint venture between Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) and Vestforbrænding, for 2.95 million tons of carbon removal credits. The company has also backed Norwegian oil and gas company Equinor’s Northern Lights carbon capture project, the world’s first cross-border CO2 transport and storage facility.