

๐ฌ๐งยฃ20 billion in carbon capture and storage (#CCS) โ this is how much UK Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has announced this week for the country to invest into CCS technologies.
The ยฃ20 billion will boost the fossil #CCS sector โ extracting industrially produced CO2 and storing it underground โ over the next two decades. There are no plans yet for #CDR projects, but I expect significant synergies particularly with #DACCS and #BECCS.
The #UK has already been leading the way, with an industrial scale CCS plant already operating with a capacity of 40,000 tonnes/year and its first commercial scale CCS plant announced in December to remove 1.5 million tonnes. This new budget is yet another major development for the UK #carbonmanagement sector.
So thatโs the UK โ but what's happening in other countries?
๐บ๐ธ The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) launched a $3.5 billion program in 2022 for direct air capture (#DAC) hubs capable of capturing and storing 1 million tonnes of carbon per year and a tax credit (#45Q) increase of $85-$180/tonne of CO2 permanently stored.
๐ง๐ป The Norwegian government is spearheading its #CCS project Longship, whose Northern Lights JV, to reach Phase One in 2024, has a capacity of 1.5 million tonnes. The country is also considering a reverse tax of NOK2,000/tonne (โฌ175) to further incentivise #DAC.
๐ธ๐ช District heating company Stockholm Exergi, partly-owned by the city of Stockholm, has received โฌ180 million in EU funding to expand its #BECCS projects, which it expects to be fully functional by 2026 and reduce the cityโs emissions by 800,000 tonnes/year.
๐ฉ๐ช Germany announced major CO2 infrastructure projects to commit to climate neutrality by 2045, including #OpenGridEuropeโs CO2 Netz, a nationwide pipeline for transporting industrial CO2 for storage abroad, and a collaboration with Norway to build a cross-border CO2 pipeline to establish a #CCS industry with a capacity of up to 40 Mt/year.
๐ช๐บ The European Commission stated that the #EU will need to capture and utilise or store between 300-640 million tonnes of CO2 per year by 2050 to meet its current emissions goals. This is a daunting estimate โ but if political leaders all across the region commit to investing in our future, it might just be attainable.
Comments