Equinor-led Northern Lights venture and Swiss start-up Climeworks will explore the potential for capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere in Norway. Climeworks provides direct carbon capture technology, while Northern Lights, which also includes Shell and Total, plans to store CO2 in a geological formation under the seabed off Norway’s coast. the plan responded to a growing list of potential customers for the Northern Lights site which could store up to 1.5 million tonnes of CO2 per year from 2024. Direct carbon capture could help to offset unavoidable emissions, such as from agriculture, which cannot be captured by using another method.
Northern Lights is a part of Norway’s ambition to develop a full-scale carbon capture and storage chain, dubbed Longship after the vessels used by Vikings. plan includes a 400,000 tonne-per-year carbon capture installation at a cement plant run by Germany’s HeidelbergCement in southern Norway and potentially a second capture plant in Oslo operated by Finnish utility Fortum. The Northern Lights venture said CO2 storage capacity could be potentially expanded to 5 million tonnes per year in the future, depending on demand. Norway had hoped the Northern Lights storage could encourage more CO2 capture projects in Europe, helping achieve the climate goals.