Microsoft will purchase up to 2.95 million tonnes of permanent carbon removals from the Gaia waste-to-energy (WtE) carbon capture retrofit, beginning in 2029.
The offtake agreement enables Gaia to capture and store up to 500,000 tonnes of CO₂ annually, advancing commercial viability for carbon capture in WtE facilities across Europe.
The project expands district heating capacity to over 10,000 additional homes, linking decarbonization to local energy resilience.
Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), through its Energy Transition Fund (CI ETF I), and Danish waste management utility Vestforbrænding have entered into a long-term carbon removal offtake agreement with Microsoft via their joint venture, Gaia ProjectCo P/S.
The deal positions Microsoft to acquire up to 2.95 million tonnes of Carbon Removal Units (CRUs) from Gaia’s carbon capture retrofit—making it one of the first long-term agreements of its kind for a waste-to-energy (WtE) facility. These CRUs represent the biogenic CO₂ captured and permanently stored, calculated using the established radiocarbon method and adjusted for process emissions.
“The offtake agreement with Microsoft is a defining milestone for the Gaia project,” said Steen Neuchs Vedel, CEO of Vestforbrænding. “It not only validates the technical and commercial maturity that Vestforbrænding has worked hard to establish but also reflects how this maturity has been further strengthened through CIP’s entry into the project.”
Installation of the carbon capture system will also significantly enhance the facility’s utility to the local community by increasing district heating capacity to serve more than 10,000 additional homes.
Nikos Samaritis, Managing Director at CI ETF I, emphasized the strategic nature of the partnership:
“We are proud to work alongside Microsoft for the sale and purchase of permanent carbon removals. This agreement, through Gaia, marks the first agreement between CIP, through CI ETF I, and Microsoft, and we are optimistic it represents the start of a long-term relationship… It also represents the first offtake transaction by CIP for environmental attributes (e.g., CRUs), signaling CIP’s growing role in the development of new environmental products and technologies.”
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The agreement aligns with the EU Waste Framework Directive, which mandates that the captured CO₂ reflects only the unavoidable fraction of waste after the full waste mitigation hierarchy is applied. This ensures that carbon removal is paired with ongoing efforts in waste prevention and recycling.
“Gaia’s approach of retrofitting waste-to-energy facilities—in combination with the enforcement of the EU Waste Framework Directive—helps unlock more carbon-free energy while ensuring waste prevention and recycling remain top priorities,” said Brian Marrs, Senior Director of Energy & Carbon Removal at Microsoft. “We’re pleased to see experienced developers like Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, through its Energy Transition Fund, entering the carbon removal market and look forward to ongoing collaboration.”
This deal sets a precedent for WtE retrofits across Europe and reinforces the role of public-private partnerships in driving scalable, high-integrity climate solutions.
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