News

Norway and Czech Republic establish cooperation on CCS

Publish date: April 15, 2015

Norway and the Czech Republic have agreed to enhance cooperation in promoting Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) as a crucial climate mitigation technology. The cooperation programme, entitled “Pilot Studies and Surveys on CCS Technology” will aim at raising awareness of the technology as well as at examining the technical and financial possibilities of deploying CCS in the Czech Republic. While strongly commending this cooperation, Bellona also calls on Norway to accelerate its own efforts in making the transition towards large-scale CCS deployment at home.

Launched on 8 April 2015, this programme will receive €5 million by Norway through the Norway Grants in order to respond to the need for increased knowledge and awareness relating to each stage of the CCS process in the Czech Republic.

The programme will be composed of four different projects, each one focusing on a particular aspect. One of these will be a research pilot project on the geological storage of CO2 in the Czech Republic, which will be implemented in cooperation with the International Research Institute of Stavanger.

Bellona recognises the importance of initiating work on storage of CO2 as soon as possible in order to ensure the availability of storage sites – the key to large-scale CCS deployment.

A feasibility study of CCS pilot technologies for coal fired power plants will be carried out in cooperation with SINTEF Energy Research. The aim of this study will be to examine the technical and financial possibilities to apply capture and storage of CO2 in the Czech Republic.

A third project will aim at furthering research on the potential for the application of CCS under the conditions existing in the Czech Republic, including the study of high temperature CO2 absorption from flue gas using carbonate loop.

Last but not least, a project implemented in cooperation with the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) will focus on knowledge sharing and awareness raising on the role of CCS as a climate mitigation tool. To this end, the project will aim to foster international cooperation and exchange of experience and best practices in the sector in order to build institutional capacity and inform the general public.

Bellona, who for over two decades has been actively working on fostering the creation of a CCS-conducive policy framework, sees the conclusion of this agreement as an important step in the right direction.

The European Council’s conclusions on the 2030 Climate and Energy Package confirmed EU leaders’ commitment to CCS, through explicitly referring to the need for this technology and through the decision to establish an Innovation and Modernisation Fund: two important sources of funding which, if carefully designed and implemented without delay, could enable the deployment of CCS in EU countries such as the Czech Republic.