A dancer performs on stage in entrance of a digital show on renewable know-how and CO2 neutrality in the course of the opening ceremony of the Hanover know-how Truthful (Hannover Messe) on the HCC Hannover Congress Centrum in Hanover, northern Germany, on April 21, 2024, with Norway as accomplice nation. – Norway is about to launch Thursday, September 26, 2024, the gateway to an enormous undersea carbon dioxide vault, an important step earlier than opening what its operator calls the primary business CO2 storage service. (Photograph by Julian Stratenschulte / POOL / Agence France-Presse)
Norway is about to inaugurate Thursday, September 26, the gateway to an enormous undersea vault for carbon dioxide, an important step earlier than opening what its operator calls the primary business service providing CO2 transport and storage.
The Northern Lights venture plans to take CO2 emissions captured at manufacturing facility smokestacks in Europe and inject them into geological reservoirs beneath the seabed.
The goal is to forestall the emissions from being launched into the environment, and thereby assist halt local weather change.
On the island of Oygarden, a key milestone shall be marked on Thursday with the inauguration of a terminal constructed on the shores of the North Sea, its shiny storage tanks rising up towards the sky.
It’s right here that the liquified CO2 shall be transported by boat, then injected by a protracted pipeline into the seabed, at a depth of round 2.6 kilometres (1.6 miles), for everlasting storage.
Article continues after this commercial
READ: Internet-zero pledges rising however integrity missing – examine
Article continues after this commercial
The ability, a three way partnership grouping oil giants Equinor of Norway, the Anglo-Dutch Shell and TotalEnergies of France, is predicted to bury its first CO2 deliveries in 2025.
It’ll have an preliminary capability of 1.5 million tonnes of CO2 per yr, earlier than being ramped as much as 5 million tonnes in a second part if there’s sufficient demand.
“Our first objective is to display that the carbon seize and storage (CCS) chain is possible,” Northern Lights managing director Tim Heijn informed AFP.
“It might probably make an actual influence on the CO2 steadiness and assist obtain local weather targets,” he mentioned.
Prohibitive value
CCS know-how is complicated and dear however has been advocated by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Local weather Change (IPCC) and the Worldwide Power Company (IEA), particularly for lowering the CO2 footprint of industries like cement and metal, that are tough to decarbonise.
The world’s general seize capability is presently simply 50.5 million tonnes, in line with the IEA, or barely 0.1 p.c of the world’s annual complete emissions.
As a way to restrict world warming to 1.5 levels Celsius for the reason that pre-industrial period, CCS must forestall a minimum of one billion tonnes of CO2 emissions per yr by 2030, the IEA says.
The know-how continues to be within the early levels, and has been sluggish to develop due to prohibitive prices – in comparison with the value firms must pay for CO2 emission quotas, for instance.
It subsequently relies upon closely on subsidies.
“Public assist was and shall be essential to assist such modern initiatives to advance, particularly as CCS prices are nonetheless increased than the prices of CO2 emissions in Europe,” mentioned Daniela Peta, public affairs director on the World CCS Institute.
The Norwegian authorities has financed 80 p.c of the price of Northern Lights, which has been stored confidential.
The Scandinavian nation is Western Europe’s largest oil and fuel producer.
The North Sea, with its depleted oil and fuel fields and its huge community of pipelines, is a perfect area to bury undesirable greenhouse gases.
CO2 storage service: Greenwashing?
Northern Lights is a part of an formidable 30-billion-kroner ($2.9 billion) scheme dubbed “Longship” – after the Viking ships – of which the state has offered 20 billion kroner.
The plan initially included the creation of two CO2 seize websites in Norway.
READ: Denmark to introduce world’s first livestock carbon tax
Whereas the Heidelberg Supplies cement manufacturing facility in Brevik is predicted to start transport its captured emissions to the positioning subsequent yr, snowballing prices have pressured the waste-to-energy plant Hafslund Celsio in Oslo to evaluate its plans.
As well as, Northern Lights has additionally secured cross-border offers with Norwegian fertiliser producer Yara and vitality group Orsted to bury CO2 from an ammonia plant within the Netherlands and two biomass energy stations in Denmark.
Some environmentalists fear the know-how may present an excuse to extend the usage of fossil fuels and divert funds wanted for renewable energies.
They’ve additionally raised issues concerning the threat of leaks.
“Northern Lights is ‘greenwashing’,” mentioned the pinnacle of Greenpeace Norway, Frode Pleym, noting that the venture was run by oil firms.
Your subscription couldn’t be saved. Please attempt once more.
Your subscription has been profitable.
“Their aim is to have the ability to proceed pumping oil and fuel. CCS, the electrification of platforms and all of those sorts of measures are utilized by the oil trade in a cynical approach to keep away from doing something about their huge emissions,” he mentioned.
