The need to establish a portfolio of large CO₂ storage pilots by 2016 in order to complement CCS demonstration projects, accelerate state-of-the-art technology and increase public confidence in CO₂ storage was highlighted by the Zero Emissions Platform (ZEP) in its June 2013 report “Accelerating the demonstration of CO2 geological storage in Europe – the case for up to six new storage pilots”.

The report by CGS Europe, “Opportunities for CO₂ storage pilot projects across Europe”, recognises that although CO₂storage is well advanced from a technological point of view, research based on real field sites is now strongly needed in order to maximise the efficiency of these technologies, to optimise the tools needed for monitoring and verification, and to be able to adapt to the specificity of local geological conditions.

The results were generated based on questionnaires completed by the CGS Europe project partners, which include 34 research institutes from 24 EU Member States and 4 associated countries. Overall, 22 potential pilot projects in 15 European countries are presented for consideration.

On basis of the collected answers, the report concludes that options for pilot project development are widely distributed across Europe and the scientific community is ready to provide these ideas to the industry and to the national and European authorities in order to develop this kind of projects. However, the CGS Europe partners reported a general lack of funding schemes needed to advance their development.