Norway has taken a significant step in the fight against climate change by inaugurating the gateway to an undersea vault designed to store carbon dioxide. This move paves the way for the opening of what is being hailed as the world’s first commercial CO2 transport and storage service.
The Northern Lights project, a joint venture involving energy giants Equinor, Shell, and TotalEnergies, aims to capture CO2 emissions directly from industrial sites across Europe. These emissions will then be transported by ship to the newly inaugurated terminal on the island of Øygarden, where they will be injected into geological reservoirs deep beneath the North Sea seabed.
The facility’s 12 towering storage tanks, connected by a complex network of pipes, represent a monumental effort to prevent CO2 from entering the atmosphere. From the terminal, the liquefied CO2 will travel through a 110-kilometer pipeline before being stored at approximately 2.6 kilometers below the sea’s surface.
“Northern Lights is really a demonstration project that carbon capture and storage is a technically feasible solution,” stated Managing Director Tim Heijn. “It’s one tool that can be used to combat climate change.”
Addressing Industrial Emissions
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology is particularly crucial for industries like cement and steel manufacturing, where reducing emissions is challenging. The International Energy Agency (IEA) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) advocate for CCS as part of the strategy to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
Currently, global CO2 capture capacity stands at just 50.5 million tonnes, a mere 0.1 percent of annual emissions. The IEA estimates that at least one billion tonnes of CO2 need to be captured annually by 2030 to meet climate targets.
Despite its potential, CCS technology has been slow to develop due to high costs. Public funding plays a critical role in projects like Northern Lights. The Norwegian government has financed 80 percent of the project’s undisclosed total cost, as part of the broader “Longship” initiative, a 30-billion-kroner ($2.9 billion) investment in CCS projects.
Looking to the Future
The Northern Lights facility is expected to begin operations in 2025 with an initial capacity of 1.5 million tonnes of CO2 per year, which could increase to five million tonnes depending on demand. It has already secured contracts to store CO2 from a Norwegian fertilizer manufacturer and energy group Ørsted’s operations in the Netherlands and Denmark.
However, the success of CCS also depends on economic factors, such as the cost of CO2 emission quotas in the European Union’s Emissions Trading System (ETS). “You can emit and pay the ETS instead of trying to find a solution,” Heijn noted.
Environmental groups have expressed skepticism about CCS, with concerns over potential leaks and the technology being used to justify ongoing fossil fuel extraction. Frode Pleym, head of Greenpeace Norway, criticized the project as “greenwashing,” arguing that it allows oil companies to continue high emissions.
Norway’s Energy Minister Terje Aasland defended the initiative, emphasizing its necessity. “The alternative is to fail to meet the climate challenges, or that industries will have to shut down,” he said. “This alternative is not at all desirable.”
A Model for Global Efforts
As nations grapple with the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, projects like Northern Lights could serve as a blueprint for combining public and private efforts to deploy CCS technology at scale. The North Sea’s depleted oil and gas fields offer an ideal location for CO2 storage, leveraging existing infrastructure.
With additional CCS projects in development, such as the Greensand scheme off Denmark’s coast, there is hope that collaborative initiatives can accelerate progress towards global climate goals.
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World's first CO2 storage service close to opening in Norway
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