Will California’s 100% Renewable Target Be Enough? The Role of Carbon Capture & Storage (CCS) as Seen from Norway
As Evan Halper just wrote in Clock’s running out on climate change. California says it’s time for giant carbon vacuums (phys.org), “Solar panels, wind turbines and electric cars will go far in helping California and the Biden administration meet their aggressive climate goals — but not far enough.” Norway would agree. If we are to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement, we need to look at carbon capture and storage (CCS) as well.
As today marks the 51st anniversary of Earth Day, I want to touch on why CCS can become one of the world’s most important industries. But industrial emitters who want to implement carbon capture face a major problem: what are they going to do with the CO₂ emissions they capture? We think we may have found the solution in Norway. Hear me out, it’s early days yet.
According to a 2020 report by Carbon Limits and THEMA Consulting Group, CCS has an important role to play in achieving a climate-neutral Europe. Large-scale CO₂ transport and storage infrastructure is essential. This infrastructure is, however, not yet in place.
If there is no value chain for carbon transport and storage, how do we scale past a single project and single facility — with a working business model?
Norway’s Northern Lights project is a collaboration between Equinor, Shell and Total that is paving the way for a shared European infrastructure for carbon transport and storage.
Northern Lights will be the first of its kind — an open access infrastructure for transporting CO₂ from onshore industrial capture sources in Europe to an offshore storage location below the seabed of the North Sea. The aim is to enable industrial companies to start capturing CO₂ emissions without having to build their own transport and storage solutions from scratch.
“By providing an open and accessible network for transport and storage of CO₂, Northern Lights will open the door for many more companies to implement carbon capture,” says Sverre Overå at Equinor, Project Director of Northern Lights.
Facts about Northern Lights
- The world’s first carbon storage facility with the capacity to receive CO₂ emissions from multiple industrial sources.
- Encompasses transport, reception and sequestration of CO₂ in a reservoir in the North Sea.
- Scheduled to come online in 2024, and will transport, inject and store up to 1.5 million metric tons of CO₂ annually. Capacity will gradually be expanded to 5 million metric tons annually.
- A confirmation well, Eos, was drilled in March 2020 with satisfactory results.
Building a Scalable Value Chain for CO₂
This is the vision for Northern Lights: a network of tanker ships will transport liquefied CO₂ from intermediate storage facilities in Europe to a receiving terminal at Øygården on Norway’s western coast. The emissions will then be treated, pumped through pipelines and injected into a rock formation nearly 3 km below the seabed for sequestration.
This will allow industrial emitters from sites all over Europe to start capturing CO₂ emissions without having to worry about where to store them.
In the first phase, the project will use existing technology. However, scaling operations and cutting costs will call for new solutions, innovation and technology development. These will be essential to accelerate development of this extremely important market.
Collaboration with Microsoft
In order to realize the vision of a European CCS network, Northern Lights has signed letters of intent with a wide range of industrial and energy heavyweights, including Air Liquide, ArcelorMittal, Ervia, Fortum Oyj, HeidelbergCement, Preem, Stockholm Exergi and ETH Zürich.
“We’re talking about building an entirely new ecosystem with industrial actors who are not used to working together,” says Overå.
Microsoft joined the project in October 2020.
“Our goal is not only to contribute our technology and know-how, but explore how new solutions like the Northern Lights project can help us meet our own carbon negative goals by 2030,” said Brad Smith, President and Chief Legal Officer of Microsoft, in a press release.
Complete Carbon Capture and Storage Value Chain in Norway
CCS is considered essential to Europe achieving its emission reduction targets. This is because in the foreseeable future it will be technologically impossible or exorbitantly expensive to eliminate CO₂ emissions from certain sectors, such as waste incineration and cement and steel production. Although it is possible to reduce emissions, achieving net-zero emission targets will require capturing and storing the remaining CO₂.
The Norwegian government has long stressed the importance of CCS as a climate tool, both in Norway and internationally, and has supported technology development, pilot projects and more for years. In autumn 2020, the Storting (Norwegian parliament) approved the construction of a full-scale, integrated CCS system. The Longship project, as it is called, encompasses the entire value chain from carbon capture to transport and storage and is the first of its kind in the world.
In addition to Northern Lights, the Longship project also includes state funding of a full-scale carbon capture facility at Norcem’s cement factory in Brevik, Norway. The government also intends to fund a carbon capture facility at Fortum Oslo Varme’s waste incineration plant in Oslo, provided that the project secures sufficient own funding as well as funding from the EU or other sources.
The government has invested roughly USD 2 billion in Northern Lights — 80 per cent of the total budget for the first 10 years. As the market for carbon capture matures, the project will be able to generate revenue from transporting and storing CO₂.
In the end it is important to remember that carbon capture is not an alternative to electrification and the transition to renewable energy sources, but rather a tool to remove emissions from sectors that are very difficult to decarbonize.
Leading international players have already discovered the CCS opportunity in Norway, but the door is still open for new players and innovation that will help create the market, scale, and cut costs to deliver a long-term sustainable business model.
Want to hear more about what Norway and California are doing to achieve their climate goals? Register for Norway’s virtual Royal Visit on Tuesday, April 27 and Wednesday, April 28 here.
Rewrite of article first published on TheExplorer.no: Northern Lights — shared transport and storage infrastructure for Europe’s CO₂ emissions
