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Brilliant Planet

Grow, dry and bury algae in costal deserts to remove carbon from the atmosphere.

Climate impact

Removal

Solution

Coastal ecosystems

Location

Morocco

Evaluation

No official carbon standard

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ABOUT

Learn more about the
project

Using marine algae in coastal deserts to capture and sequester CO2 to produce biomass at one tenth of the cost of legacy systems. Now that's a brilliant idea!

Their innovative process is not only cost-effective, but also highly effective in capturing and sequestering carbon. The locally sourced, GMO-free algae are cultivated using seawater, with the energy from sunlight entering their land-based ponds. Buried biomass is "triple locked" to prevent decomposition: It is extremely dry, highly salty, and becomes naturally acidic, meaning that sequestered carbon remains stable for upwards of 1,000-years.

What sets Brilliant Planet apart is not only the efficiency of their process, but also its measurability and dependability. By operating on land rather than the open ocean, they are able to directly monitor, report, and verify CO2 removal in real-time. And with vast areas of coastal desert available for their use, they have gigaton potential for scalability: a 1000-hectare site is being constructed to follow-up this first 30-hectare demonstrator.

But the benefits don't stop there. Brilliant Planet's process also enhances marine biodiversity and supports climate justice, empowering low-income communities to participate meaningfully in reversing climate change. With a focus on affordability, measurability, and sustainability, Brilliant Planet is truly a game-changer in the fight against climate change.

Brilliant Planet

At Brilliant Planet we have developed a system for removing carbon at the gigaton scale by sustaining exponential algae blooms. This is achieved in controlled outdoor ponds, using seawater and sunlight as inputs. Our unique approach combines the affordability of nature-based systems with the permanence and measurability of engineered systems.

ASSESSMENT

Everything about this project at a glance.

Climate impact

Removal

How to read this

Our atmosphere is like a bathtub, which we have been filling for decades with greenhouse gasses. Each ton of CO2e in the tub increases the global temperature and affects the climate.

In order to prevent our bathtub from spilling - which would mean reaching a +2°C temperature increase - 3 types of actions exist:

Reduction: These projects reduce emissions, closing the tap and slowing down the filling of the tub (e.g. switching to more efficient fuels)

Avoidance: These projects preventing future emissions, stopping a new tap from being opened (e.g. protecting forests and peatlands so that they don’t start releasing CO2)

Removal: These projects remove and capture greenhouse gasses, emptying the bathtub (e.g. reforestation and direct air capture technology)

Solution

Coastal ecosystems

How to read this

Solutions are different ways we can reduce, avoid and remove our emissions. They vary in terms of cost, level of maturity, potential to scale, and other factors. To make comparisons easier, Sweep groups solutions into categories such as Forests, Geoengineering or Buildings. Climate solutions are numerous: to learn more about what can be done, explore our catalog.

Location

Morocco

How to read this

Solutions can be deployed in a large range of locations, from a micro-regions to entire sections of a continent. You might want to focus your contributions on specific areas to maximize local socioeconomic impacts or contribute where your activities are based.

Evaluation

Not certified • No official carbon standard

How to read this

Various international and regional standards rely on established methodologies, dedicated processes and third-party verifications to guarantee that a project delivers on its promises.

Certified: Standards, such as Gold Standard or Verra, are listed for maximal transparency

Not certified yet: The process to be certified is expensive and cumbersome, and ad-hoc methodologies might not exist for specific projects, preventing them from being certified. Sweep promotes other projects after a necessary due diligence, bringing more projects to a wider audience while also offering opportunities to develop and tailor new projects according to your own needs.

Capacity

6.75kt

How to read this

Capacity is the projected volume of tCO2e reduced or removed during the crediting period. This indicates the projected net impact of a project after adjusting for potential negative impacts and other externalities. This is key to assessing the current scale of a project and can give a quick estimate of what the considered volumes represent at the project scale.

Capacity does not reflect the available quantity of credits as some of them can already be sold.

Crediting Period

2024 - 2026

How to read this

Certified projects are eligible to generate carbon credits over a certain period of time. This crediting period gives a good estimate of the progress of a project.

Older crediting periods means that projects have delivered their promises and that third-party auditors have recognized the climate impact

Crediting periods covering coming years may have already been audited for a fraction of the volumes. The rest will be generated along future audits.

Co-benefits

5 SDGs

5 SDGs

SDG 5: Gender Equality

our workforce is 30% female in a highly conservative Muslim society where women rarely participate in the workforce. Our target is 50%.

SDG 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure

Our project locations are inherently low income rural desert areas. We intend to invest over $250 million at each of these sites.

SDG 10: Reducing Inequality

Our operations are 100% located in vulnerable rural areas with low economic opportunity

SDG 13: Climate Action

Our company is 100% dedicated to high-quality carbon removal

SDG 14: Life Below Water

For every 1 unit of seawater that passes through our system we deacidify the equivalent of 5 units back to pre-industrial levels, enabling local costal ecosystems and biodiversity to thrive again.

How to read this

Projects often have positive side effects beyond reducing, removing, or avoiding emissions. For example, projects might reduce waste, protect biodiversity, or support indigenous people. These co-benefits are modelled after the UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs).

Durability

High

How to read this

Durability only applies to to removal solutions. It indicates for how long the carbon will be removed from the atmosphere - the longer this is the more desirable. For example, storing carbon as mineral underground is more durable than in a tree, making it a less risky and longer term solution.

Financial additionality

High

How to read this

Additionality reveals the impact of your financial support. It indicates what percentage of the global project budget is coming from contributions.

High additionality means most of the project revenue relies on contributions, and they would likely not be able to happen without this financing.

Low additionality projects are less reliant on contributions.

Other additionality criteria, such as policy or regulatory additionality, are tackled through certifications and not assessed here

Barriers

Medium

The total project barrier score is available when all types of barrier are provided. It is a composite score based on the 5 barriers assessed.

Technical
Medium
Financial
Medium
Social
Low
Political
Low
Economical
Medium

Our primary barriers are the maturity of the voluntary carbon market and societal awareness of the importance of value of high-quality carbon removal. Specific to our project, barriers are project financing, execution, and availability of necessary workforce skills in rural areas. However, we have developed a senior leadership team that is highly experienced in overcoming these. Our hope is to serve as a demonstration that these barriers can indeed be overcome, enabling highly positive environmental, social, and financial outcomes.

How to read this

Barriers are the different hurdles a project might need to overcome. Barriers can give you a sense for the challenges a project faces, but also how it can add deeper value and create change. We differentiate five types of barriers: economic, social, institutional, technical and financial.

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