Norway is set to inaugurate a key component of its ambitious Northern Lights project on Thursday. This initiative, a crucial step towards commercial CO2 transport and storage, is seen as a significant advance in combating climate change.
The Northern Lights project, a joint venture by Equinor, Shell, and TotalEnergies, aims to capture CO2 emissions from factory smokestacks in Europe. The captured CO2 will be transported to a terminal on the island of Oygarden. From there, it will be injected through a long pipeline into geological reservoirs beneath the North Sea seabed, at a depth of around 2.6 kilometers. This process is intended to prevent CO2 from being released into the atmosphere, thereby helping to halt global warming.
The facility will have an initial capacity to store 1.5 million tonnes of CO2 annually, with the potential to increase to five million tonnes if demand grows. The first CO2 deliveries are expected in 2025, marking a significant milestone for carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology.
CCS is complex and costly but has been advocated by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the International Energy Agency (IEA). This technology is essential for reducing the CO2 footprint of industries like cement and steel, which are difficult to decarbonize. Currently, the world’s overall capture capacity is just 50.5 million tonnes, a fraction of the global annual emissions. To limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, CCS would need to prevent at least one billion tonnes of CO2 emissions per year by 2030, according to the IEA.
The Northern Lights project is part of Norway’s 30-billion-kroner ($2.9 billion) “Longship” scheme, which aims to advance CCS technology. The Norwegian government has financed 80 percent of the project’s cost, underlining its commitment to addressing climate change. However, the high costs associated with CCS have slowed its development, and the technology depends heavily on subsidies.
Some environmentalists are concerned that CCS could extend the life of fossil fuels and divert funds from renewable energy. Greenpeace Norway has criticized the Northern Lights project, calling it “greenwashing” and accusing the oil companies involved of using CCS to justify continued fossil fuel extraction.
Despite the controversy, the Northern Lights project represents a significant step forward in the fight against climate change. If successful, it could pave the way for broader adoption of CCS technology worldwide.