Deploying engineered carbon dioxide removal strategies like direct air capture (DAC) will be
imperative to meet net-zero targets, given the biophysical constraints associated with land-based
methods. Thoroughly devised deployment pathways for DAC could ease the financial burdens of
adopting the technology at climate-relevant scales. Key drivers for the optimal regional rollouts of
DAC include the available energy supply and geological capacities for CO2 storage. These factors
also impose temporal constraints considering the evolving nature of energy systems and the
development of CO2 transport and storage infrastructure over time. As DAC technologies exhibit
differences in their system demands, integrating various methods into deployment strategies may
address potential trade-offs arising from regional resource endowments. Commercial-ready options
use solid sorbents or liquid solvents, while emerging methods extend to electrochemical devices
like bipolar membranes. These technologies will expectedly see their costs evolve differently as they
follow distinct technological learning trajectories. However, existing assessments of DAC lack the
temporal, spatial, and technological granularity needed to investigate optimal deployment
roadmaps. We address this gap by examining least-cost, time- and space-resolved deployment
strategies for DAC in Europe within the context of achieving a collective net-zero target by 2050.
We apply a multi-period energy systems model that optimises decisions on the construction and
operation of DAC across Europe in hourly timesteps and with a spatial resolution of EU NUTS-
2. The model minimises the costs associated with sequestering atmospheric CO2 on a net life-cycle
basis. The findings augment insight into the relative contributions of sorbent-, solvent-, and
membrane-based DAC, the effects of location on the optimal configuration of technologies in
DAC systems, and the evolution of net CO2 removal costs up to mid-century for a given location.