Tivano Banks CHF 500,000 Grant to Scale Biomass Storage in Namibia

A CHF 500,000 ($606,000) grant will carry Zurich-based Tivano's Namibian biomass storage operation from demonstration scale into full deployment, the company has announced.

The money comes from REPIC — the Renewable Energy, Energy, and Resource Efficiency Promotion in International Cooperation platform — as a dedicated rollout grant. REPIC is a joint initiative of four Swiss federal bodies: the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN), and the Federal Office of Energy (SFOE).

The platform funds projects and shares knowledge on renewable energy and resource efficiency within international cooperation. For Tivano, the timing matters: the company is mid-transition on its Dragonfly project, moving from a carbon dioxide removal demonstration to large-scale deployment.

In short, Swiss public money is now underwriting the scale-up of a carbon removal operation built on a waste biomass stream in southern Africa.

What is Tivano actually storing?

Tivano specializes in terrestrial storage of biomass. In Namibia, the feedstock is encroachment bush — invasive woody species that have spread across the country's rangelands and degraded natural ecosystems.

The company harvests that biomass and stores it terrestrially, locking up carbon while clearing land that invasive bush has taken over. The Dragonfly project sits around the city of Otjiwarongo, in north-central Namibia.

The dual output is the pitch: verified carbon removal on one side, land and nature restoration on the other, in a region the company describes as seriously affected by invasive bush species.

What has the project delivered so far?

The numbers are early-stage but tangible. According to Tivano:

• 120 hectares of land restored to date
• More than 1,000 tonnes of CO₂ removed from the atmosphere
• Over 1,000 CORCs issued earlier this year from Dragonfly — the first credits generated under the Puro Standard Terrestrial Storage of Biomass methodology

Those CORC issuances matter commercially. They mark Dragonfly's transition from concept to a credit-generating asset, and the Puro Standard methodology gives buyers an audited basis for the removal claims. Tivano also says its partnerships with local stakeholders are creating work opportunities and economic activity in the region.

The takeaway: Tivano has a working facility, a verified credit trail, and now rollout capital — the three pieces a biomass storage project needs before it can talk seriously about scale.

Is a second facility already in the works?

Yes. Tivano is advancing Project Butterfly, a second Namibian operation, and construction of the Butterfly 1 carbon vault has already begun.

That gives the company two parallel tracks: scaling Dragonfly with REPIC's CHF 500,000 behind it, and building out new storage capacity at Butterfly. Both target the same encroachment-bush feedstock and the same terrestrial storage model.

The one-line summary: one plant scaling, one under construction, and a national biomass problem large enough to feed both.

Why Namibia is becoming a biomass carbon removal hub

Tivano is not the only operator working this material stream. PyroCCS and Atmosfair recently joined forces to scale biochar carbon removal in Namibia — a different storage pathway, same feedstock logic.

Namibia's bush encroachment problem is substantial, and it produces a steady supply of biomass that carbon removal companies can monetize through certified credits. Swiss and European public finance, in Tivano's case via REPIC, is helping de-risk the first wave of these deployments.

The pattern is straightforward: demonstration projects prove the methodology, issuance of credits proves the market, and rollout grants bridge the gap to commercial scale.

What decides what happens next?

Watch two milestones. First, whether Dragonfly's transition to large-scale deployment converts the REPIC funding into a step change in hectares restored and tonnes stored — the jump from 1,000 tonnes to something orders of magnitude larger. Second, whether Butterfly 1 completes construction and starts generating its own removal volumes under the same Puro Standard framework.

CORC issuance volumes from both sites will be the market's scoreboard.