First CO2 storage marks major step towards climate goals
Today, there are a handful of large-scale CCS projects in the world and many projects are in the pipeline. However, this is still far below the scale of deployment needed to meet climate targets, as pointed out by the International Energy Agency.
Developing CO2 storage capacity is crucial to develop the whole CCS value chain. Therefore, it marks an important milestone for the development of CCS in Denmark that Project Greensand now initiates testing of the first storage of CO2 in the Danish subsoil in a decommissioned oil field. This can provide important experiences in the implementation of CCS in Denmark and Europe in the coming years.
CONCITO highlights, that Denmark can play a significant role in the development of CCS by showing how the technology can be implemented at selected Danish sources and by exploiting the potential of the Danish subsoil to store CO2, including from neighboring countries.
According to state geologists at GEUS, the Danish subsoil has the potential to store 22 billion tons of CO2. Three storage projects in development, including Project Greensand, aim to store a total of 33 million tons by 2030. In comparison, CONCITO estimates that the potential for CO2 capture from Danish sources is 5 megatons 2030. There will thus be a great potential for importing CO2 from neighboring countries and helping them get rid of their CO2. This can contribute to a faster transition in e.g. Germany and Sweden, which do not have the same opportunities to store CO2.
In CONCITO's vision for a climate-neutral Denmark in 2040, CCS plays an important role, but is only a small piece in the bigger picture of climate solutions, where emissions must be reduced from 78 million tons of CO2e emissions in 1990 to climate neutrality.
CCS does not make sense for all sources that emit CO2, but for those sources where there is no prospect of better alternatives, such as direct electrification with e.g. heat pumps.
CONCITO considers biogas plants, heavy industry (cement production and refineries) and waste incineration plants to be the most applicable source in a Danish context. The implementation of CCS is certainly not without challenges, but with rising prices of emitting CO2 - with the EU ETS price and the Danish carbon tax - in combination with the funding dedicated for CCS in Denmark, the incentives are becoming favorable in Denmark.
The first experiences with storing CO2 should pave the way for Denmark to store CO2 on a large scale, including storing CO2 from Danish sources and help neighboring countries in their transition.
In the paper "the potential for carbon capture and storage in Denmark", CONCITO provides an insight into the Danish framework conditions and potential for CCS.
