Connect with us

Technology

Return and Verified Announce First 100% Wind-Powered Direct Air Capture Hub, Designed To Scale to 500,000 Tons Annually

Published

on

‘Project Concho’ Combines Proven DAC Technology, New Local Wind Power And Texas’ Carbon Storage Capacity

SAN ANGELO, Texas, Nov. 21, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Carbon capture and removal project developers Return Carbon and Verified Carbon today announced ‘Project Concho,’ a pioneering Direct Air Capture (DAC) hub to be built in Tom Green County, Texas. Project Concho will be the first DAC hub in the world to run entirely on wind power and will leverage advanced DAC technology as well as onsite geological carbon storage to capture and permanently remove CO₂ from the atmosphere. In its first phase, the facility aims to remove 50,000 tons annually before 2030, with expansion plans to reach 500,000 tons per year, in turn creating premium, verified carbon credits that hold significant value in carbon markets.

Project Concho will be powered by a new wind farm to be built and operated by Greenalia, a leading global renewable energy producer with presence in wind and solar in Europe and the United States. The technology underpinning Project Concho will be provided by Skytree, an industry-leading carbon removal company born out of the European Space Agency with DAC units in deployment across Europe, Canada, and the United States.

“Project Concho is a significant step forward in scaling up DAC,” said Martijn Verwoerd, Managing Director of Return Carbon. “This opportunity aligns perfectly with Return Carbon and Verified Carbon’s joint mission to mitigate climate change through the scalable commercialization of new technologies in impactful infrastructure projects. We’re thrilled to make West Texas a home for this groundbreaking DAC hub and create new opportunities for the region.”

Collaboration Sets Stage For Future Renewable Power-DAC Projects

Project Concho is the result of an unprecedented collaboration between a wind energy provider and a DAC developer: the DAC hub guarantees a reliable offtake of wind energy in return for access to low-cost power, one of the challenges associated with large-scale DAC projects. Project Concho’s energy optimization will be enabled through its flexible use of power, leveraging the agreement of Greenalia and Concho partners to develop a unique Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) structure that allows for price stability and full energy deliverability. This symbiotic arrangement sets the stage for future joint renewable power-DAC projects that enable greater scale, lower risk, and reduced costs.

“We are excited about the partnership with Project Concho and there is a vision and a framework for collaboration that our companies share,” said Alexandre Alonso, SVP of Business Development at Greenalia. “The flexibility offered by the DAC hub to optimize around energy price peaks is a game changer for renewable energy projects. It not only strengthens the business case for our wind farm under development in Texas but also contributes to adding innovative business models and alternatives for a greener energy landscape in the U.S.”

State-of-the-art DAC Technology

Project Concho will feature a connected array of Skytree Stratus DAC units. Skytree’s patented DAC technology continuously optimizes energy use and drives down energy consumption while ensuring optimal CO2 capture efficiency. In addition, its modular design and 24/7 uptime guarantee made it a logical choice for a large-scale project like Project Concho in which units will be added over time.

“Project Concho is a first-of-its-kind collaboration that opens the door to even more ambitious and transformative carbon removal projects,” said Elena Nikonova, VP North America at Skytree. “Deploying DAC at scale is necessary to drive down costs across the value chain and achieve greater impact and we are thrilled to provide the technology needed to bring Project Concho to life.”

Revenue and Environmental Benefits to Concho Valley

Through carbon sequestration, local landowners can take advantage of passive revenue streams while promoting sustainable land use. “Project Concho brings significant benefits to the Concho Valley, providing new economic opportunities for landowners beyond traditional activities,” said Coleman White, co-founder of Verified Carbon and Concho Valley landowner. “Projects like these allow us to maintain traditional land uses while benefiting from a new income source and supporting projects that sustain both our environment and local economy”.

About Return Carbon

Return Carbon is a project development and investment company focused on sustainable infrastructure and energy transition projects, with a focus on the development of Direct Air Capture. Return Carbon is part of the Return group, a leading investor in solar and energy storage, with an extensive portfolio in Europe. Return has gained prominence in Europe’s energy transition, having raised EUR 100 million to support its portfolio companies, including leading energy storage companies such as SemperPower, Lion Storage, and J&P Batterie Projekte.

About Verified Carbon

Verified Carbon is a Texas-based carbon capture company, originating from the University of Texas at Austin. The company specializes in deploying DAC technology to sequester carbon and mitigate climate change while delivering financial benefits to local stakeholders. Verified Carbon, whose founding members have contributed to over 35 different Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) projects, brings vital knowledge of the subsurface and strong landowner partnerships to the project, creating new revenue opportunities for landowners while advancing sustainable carbon sequestration in the region.

About Greenalia

Greenalia is an Independent Power Producer exclusively for renewable energy. The company harnesses wind, sun, and forestry biomass from certified plantations’ remains to generate and store energy sustainably. Greenalia promotes employment and innovation in the regions where it operates, driving growth across Europe and the U.S.

About Skytree

Born out of the European Space Agency in 2014 and headquartered in Amsterdam, Skytree harnesses CO2 from ambient air through the power of direct air capture technology (DAC). Its patented technology can be set up quickly at any location and scaled to meet the needs of businesses of all sizes. With Skytree’s unique Uptime Assurance Guarantee, all DAC systems are monitored to ensure uninterrupted operations and measured to provide valuable insights. Skytree’s Stratus DAC units are field-upgradable to newer generations as capture materials evolve, reducing energy consumption costs while improving unit capacity over time. For more information, visit skytree.eu.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/return-and-verified-announce-first-100-wind-powered-direct-air-capture-hub-designed-to-scale-to-500-000-tons-annually-302312841.html

SOURCE Return Carbon

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Technology

ObjectWin India Rebrands as FornaxTech; Focuses on AI-Led Transformation and GCC-Driven Global Delivery

Published

on

By

BANGALORE, India, April 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — ObjectWin India has rebranded as FornaxTech, reflecting its evolution into a capability-led organization aligned with the Fornax Group and focused on supporting AI-native enterprises, Global Capability Centers (GCCs), and global delivery models.

The move comes as enterprises accelerate investments in AI and expand GCCs as hubs for innovation, product development, and digital transformation.

FornaxTech will continue to build on ObjectWin India’s established strengths in technology talent and solutions, while expanding its role in enabling capability development, execution alignment, and transformation outcomes.

“This transition reflects where we already are and where we are heading,” said Saurav Lenka, CEO of FornaxTech. “We are building on a strong foundation while expanding how we create value through deeper capability, global delivery alignment, and more integrated engagement in an AI-driven world.”

As part of Fornax Group, the company will leverage broader capabilities, geographic reach, and enterprise relationships to support multi-market engagements and more complex transformation needs.

“This is an important step in strengthening a unified direction across the group,” said Subrata Nag, Founder & Group CEO, Fornax Corporate Services. “It allows us to bring together talent, technology, and execution in a more cohesive way to support evolving enterprise needs in an AI-led, globally distributed landscape.”

FornaxTech said it will focus on:

Capability-led engagement across global teams and GCCsIntegration of talent, platforms, and processesAI-native approaches to delivery and execution

The company’s delivery framework is supported by ObjectWin India’s CMMI Level 3 certification for Services, reflecting established process maturity, execution consistency, and scalability for enterprise engagements.

About FornaxTech

FornaxTech is a technology and talent solutions company focused on enabling enterprise transformation in an AI-native and globally distributed environment. As part of the Fornax Group, the company supports organizations with integrated capabilities across talent, technology, and execution.

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2966208/FornaxTech_Logo.jpg

 

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/in/news-releases/objectwin-india-rebrands-as-fornaxtech-focuses-on-ai-led-transformation-and-gcc-driven-global-delivery-302755456.html

Continue Reading

Technology

Certis and Ensign InfoSecurity Partner to Strengthen Cybersecurity and Governance in AI-Driven Robotics

Published

on

By

Collaboration strengthens governance and cyber resilience as autonomous AI
becomes increasingly embedded in physical and operational environments

SINGAPORE, April 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Certis Group, Singapore’s leading provider of integrated security and operations solutions, and Ensign InfoSecurity, Asia Pacific’s largest pure-play cybersecurity services provider, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) at the Milipol TechX (MTX) 2026, a regional platform for security and technology innovation, to strengthen cybersecurity, safety and governance in robotic systems powered by artificial intelligence.

The partnership addresses a growing challenge as AI systems evolve from assisting humans to acting autonomously. Beyond conventional cybersecurity threats which typically result in data breaches or system outages, vulnerabilities in AI robotic systems carry an additional category of risk: manipulated sensor inputs, loss of supervisory control, or autonomous systems executing unintended physical actions with real-world consequences.

This collaboration comes as Singapore increases the deployment of autonomous systems to aid in security, logistics and transport operations, highlighting the urgent need to translate governance principles into practical, operational safeguards, particularly in real-world environments where there is little room for error.

Under the MOU, both organisations will work together to strengthen cybersecurity, safety and ethical governance in AI-driven robotics. Certis will lead the development and implementation of safety and ethics fail-safes, as well as Human-in-the-Loop interfaces within the AI robotic platform. In parallel, Ensign will oversee the development of cybersecurity requirements governing the platform’s communication interfaces, as well as the AI’s core reasoning and decision-making processes, including the design of cybersecurity controls, standards and frameworks.

Together, the partnership will embed guardrails across the full system lifecycle, from design and development to testing, deployment and eventual decommissioning, while advancing cybersecurity capabilities, cross-domain knowledge-sharing, and practical frameworks to support the secure and responsible use of autonomous systems.

“As Certis accelerates the development and deployment of our robotics and AI across our operations, we are cognisant that the power of these technologies is only as strong as the security that protects them,” Mr Alex Ooi, Chief Information Security Officer of Certis, said.

“In this new era of industrialised AI, cybersecurity is no longer a peripheral function, but a critical enabler of our future. For Certis, securing our autonomous systems means more than just protecting data; it means ensuring the operational integrity and safety of the physical environments we are trusted to guard. By embedding rigorous cyber-resilience into every tech, robot and algorithm we deploy, we are building a future where innovation and absolute trust coexist seamlessly in this partnership,’ Mr Ooi added.

Key areas of focus in the MOU include

Developing ethical, safety-first approaches for AI-driven robotics, supported by shared standards across data handling, model training and real-world operationsEmbedding security and risk management by design across the system lifecycle, including threat identification, risk assessment and safeguards against unauthorised access and tamperingImplementing human-centric safety protocols and robust human-in-the-loop controls to ensure effective oversight and interventionStrengthening cyber-physical resilience through testing and operations, including adversarial testing of AI-driven robotic behaviours, continuous monitoring and specialised capabilities such as threat analysis, incident response and penetration testing

A joint Safety and Security Review Board will be established to oversee implementation and ensure alignment with evolving safety and ethical expectations.

“The rise of AI is raising the stakes for enterprise security. It goes beyond protecting systems to ensuring that autonomous decisions remain bounded, explainable and secure,” said Paul Tan, Executive Vice President of Government and Singapore Enterprises, Ensign InfoSecurity. “Having operationalised AI in security environments, we see firsthand how quickly autonomy can scale. The challenge is ensuring that control, governance and resilience scale with it, especially when these systems affect real-world operations and outcomes. This collaboration focuses on embedding cybersecurity into the way these systems are designed and deployed from the outset.”

The MOU signals a shift in how organisations deploying autonomous systems must think about risk, not as an IT concern to be managed downstream, but as a foundational design requirement woven into every layer of the system.

About Certis Group

Certis is an integrated operations service provider, built on decades of experience in security and critical frontline operations. We design and run security, facilities and workforce management as a single operating model, orchestrating people, systems and processes in complex, real-world environments to drive results.

Our approach is grounded in structured operational design, where processes, workflows and resources are engineered around defined outcomes. Further powered by our adoption of advanced technologies including AI and Robotics, Certis drives coordination, visibility and day-to-day execution across operations for its clients.

Headquartered in Singapore, Certis operates across key regional markets including Australia and Qatar, supported by a global team of over 25,000 employees. We are trusted by local governments and enterprises to deliver operational performance to make our world safer, smarter, and better.

For more information, please visit www.certisgroup.com.

About Ensign InfoSecurity 

Ensign InfoSecurity is Asia Pacific’s largest pure-play cybersecurity services provider and a trusted global partner, delivering end-to-end security solutions across the cyber lifecycle. Headquartered in Singapore, Ensign is recognised for deep capabilities spanning advisory and assurance, secure architecture and systems integration, threat intelligence, managed security operations, and incident response. Ensign also drives its own innovation through Ensign Labs, developing advanced proprietary solutions to address complex customer challenges. With over two decades of experience, Ensign provides resilient, intelligence-led security tailored to real business risks.

For more information, visit www.ensigninfosecurity.com 

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/certis-and-ensign-infosecurity-partner-to-strengthen-cybersecurity-and-governance-in-ai-driven-robotics-302756599.html

SOURCE Ensign InfoSecurity

Continue Reading

Technology

Agoda Unveils Top 5 Labor Day Destinations for 2026

Published

on

By

SINGAPORE, April 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Digital travel platform Agoda has identified the top five holiday destinations for Labor Day 2026, based on accommodation search data. This year’s list features Tokyo, Pattaya, Seoul, Osaka, and Busan, offering a mix of cultural experiences, vibrant cityscapes, and relaxing getaways for travelers to explore new destinations and unwind from their daily routines.

Tokyo, Japan, offers a captivating blend of tradition and modernity. Visitors can explore the capital city’s historic sites such as the Meiji Shrine and the Imperial Palace, while also experiencing the futuristic allure of districts like Shibuya and Akihabara. The city’s culinary scene is a highlight, with everything from Michelin-starred restaurants to bustling street food markets. Tokyo’s vibrant neighborhoods, cultural festivals, and cutting-edge technology make it a dynamic destination for travelers seeking both excitement and cultural enrichment.

Pattaya, Thailand, known for its lively beaches and vibrant nightlife, provides a tropical escape on Thailand’s eastern Gulf coast. The city offers a mix of relaxation and adventure, with opportunities for water sports, island hopping, and exploring nearby attractions like the Sanctuary of Truth. Pattaya’s Walking Street is famous for its energetic nightlife, while quieter spots like Jomtien Beach provide a more laid-back atmosphere. With its diverse range of activities and stunning coastal views, Pattaya is an ideal destination for those looking to unwind and enjoy the sun.

Seoul, South Korea, is a city where history and innovation coexist harmoniously. Visitors can explore ancient palaces such as Gyeongbokgung and Changdeokgung, while also enjoying the modern attractions of districts like Gangnam and Myeongdong. Seoul’s vibrant street markets, diverse culinary offerings, and thriving arts scene provide endless opportunities for exploration. The city’s efficient public transportation system makes it easy to navigate, allowing travelers to experience everything from traditional tea houses to cutting-edge technology hubs.

Osaka, Japan, known for its street food and entertainment districts, delights the senses with its unique offerings. Visitors can indulge in local specialties like takoyaki and okonomiyaki, while exploring bustling areas such as Dotonbori and Namba. Osaka Castle offers a glimpse into the city’s historical past, while Universal Studios Japan provides family-friendly entertainment. With its friendly locals and lively atmosphere, Osaka is a welcoming destination that offers a unique blend of culture, cuisine, and fun.

Busan, South Korea, offers stunning coastal views and a rich cultural landscape. The country’s second-largest city is home to a range of beaches, such as Haeundae and Gwangalli, which are perfect for relaxation and water activities. Visitors can explore cultural landmarks like the Beomeosa Temple and the Gamcheon Culture Village, known for its colorful houses and artistic installations. Busan’s seafood markets and local cuisine provide a taste of the region’s culinary heritage. With its mix of natural beauty and cultural attractions, Busan is a serene yet engaging destination for travelers.

Jay Lee, Regional Director, North Asia at Agoda shared, “Labor Day offers a great opportunity to explore new destinations. Whether you’re drawn to the bustling energy of Tokyo or the serene landscapes of Busan, Agoda’s comprehensive selection of accommodations, flights, and activities provides the flexibility to plan a trip that suits your preferences. Our platform is designed to make travel planning straightforward and enjoyable, ensuring a memorable Labor Day experience for all travelers.”

With over 6 million holiday properties, more than 130,000 flight routes, and over 300,000 activities, Agoda offers travelers the flexibility to create their ideal Labor Day getaway. For the best deals, travelers can visit Agoda’s website or download the Agoda mobile app.

 

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/agoda-unveils-top-5-labor-day-destinations-for-2026-302756573.html

SOURCE Agoda

Continue Reading

Trending