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Publish date: July 31, 2009
News
Legislation to regulate underground carbon dioxide storage is a step forward for CCS in Spain and is not anymore a scientific research matter but has moved to commercial-scale deployment plans with the submission on July 15th of an application from Endesa for €180mn within the European Energy Programme for Recovery (EEPR) for a large CCS project at El Bierzo in the province of Leon. The Government has elaborated the first piece of legislation in Spain related to CCS as a mitigation tool to fight climate change. The new legislation lays the foundations for future exploitation licences of carbon dioxide storage sites.
The ministries of industry and of the environment strongly believe this legislation will contribute to the EU’s 2020 target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20% compared to 1990. The permits for research – conferring exclusive rights to investigate and explore a location in order to determine the storage capacity of it – and concessions for CO2 storage will be granted by the Ministry of Industry, with prior approval of the Ministry of the Environment, Marine and Rural Affairs. According to the draft, under public consultation, the licensee is obliged to monitor the CO2 injection systems at the storage site where it will be stored. In case of a leakage, the licensee bears the responsibility and the procedure is to hand in corresponding emission allowances according to the law that regulates the Spanish emission trading scheme. The stored flux must be composed in its majority by carbon dioxide and can contain rests of associated substances added in the capture, transport and monitoring stages.
The new regulation intends that geological confinement of carbon dioxide will be indefinite. The State will take care of it once it has been proved, minimum 20 years counted after the closure of site, that the CO2 is safely stored and there is no leakage. The companies that plan to start CCS projects have to present a financial warranty/security to cover any unplanned incidence and to certify the safety of the storage throughout 20 years after the storage site is full and consequently sealed. Once this time has passed the storage site will be Government’s responsibility.
The Spanish Geological and Mining Institute (IGME) is elaborating a geological map of potential storage sites. The Ministry of Industry did reserve 11 locations all over Spain as prospective candidates for storage sites. A CCS pilot project is being carried out by CIUDEN in the province of Leon.
The bill comes just before the summer recess and with this move the Spanish Government shows that it considers CCS technology as a key innovative instrument for emissions reduction in Spain. Despite the fact that there are no plans to build any new coal-fired power plant, there are nine stations that started their operations between 1984 and 1997. Having an average fifty years of operating life, these plants could be retrofitted with post-combustion CCS technology, thus helping to reach emissions reduction targets in Spain while producing electricity amounting to nearly 3.000 MW. Spain is paving the way for CCS to become a reality in the near future.
This article was contributed by Oier Aristizabal, Bellona CCS Advisor in Spain.
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