7 May 2012

CCS in Norway - Mongstad technology centre officially opened

Technology Centre Mongstad (TCM), on the west coast of Norway north of Bergen, was
officially opened on 7 May, in a ceremony involving the Norwegian Prime Minister and
leading figures from the CCS and energy policy communities. Mongstad is the site of
Norway?s largest oil refinery, together with a fractionation plant, a crude oil terminal and a
combined heat and power station. The test centre will capture up to 100,000 tonnes of CO₂
a year from these facilities, using two alternative post-combustion capture technologies:
Alstom?s chilled ammonia process and an amine-based solution from Aker Clean Carbon.
Construction of the centre began in 2009. It is jointly owned by Gassnova, on behalf of the
Norwegian state, and by Statoil, Shell and Sasol. Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg described
the TCM as ?the world?s largest and most advanced laboratory to test carbon capture
technologies.? A final decision about a second stage, full scale capture facility at Mongstad
is due to be taken in 2016, with operation expected around 2020.

Country/Region: Norway; Subject: Demonstration

30 April 2012

IEA and Global CCS Institute release progress report concerning CCS deployment

The International Energy Agency and Global CCS Institute have released a report to the third Clean Energy Ministerial (London, 25-26 April 2012) entitled 'Tracking Progress in Carbon Capture and Storage'.

The report examines actions taken by selected governments and other stakeholders to implement seven policy recommendations concerning CCS deployment that were endorsed by participating energy ministers at the second Clean Energy Ministerial (Abu Dhabi, 6-7 April 2011).

The report highlights several areas - in particular CCS financing and industrial applications - where significant further action is required in order to implement the recommendations and overcome barriers to CCS deployment.

Subject: Policy; State Aid

26 April 2012

CCS in Canada - Project Pioneer demonstration project not to proceed

Following conclusion of the front end engineering and design (FEED) study, the three
industry partners involved in Project Pioneer, in the Canadian province of Alberta, have
announced that they will not proceed with the venture because of a lack of market demand
for the captured CO₂. The C$1.4 billion project was one of four commercial scale CCS
demonstration projects in Alberta that have won financial backing from both provincial and
federal governments. It consisted of a capture facility at the Keephills 3 coal-fired power
plant 70 km west of Edmonton, designed to capture 1 million tonnes a year of CO₂, using
post-combustion technology, with the CO₂ transported to nearby oil fields for enhanced
oil recovery (EOR), as well as to permanent storage in deep saline formations. The three
partners developing Pioneer were TransAlta Corp, Capital Power and Enbridge Inc. In
making the announcement, TransAlta stated that, although the technology had been shown
to work and the capital costs were in line with expectations, ?the market for carbon sales and
the price of emissions reductions were insufficient to allow the project to proceed.?

Country/Region: Canada; Subject: Demonstration; Economics

3 April 2012

UK Government announces GBP1bn CCS Commercialisation Programme and CCS Roadmap

On 03 April, UK Energy and Climate Change Secretary Edward Davey launched a new CCS Commercialisation Programme, including GBP 1 billion of capital funding to support commercial-scale CCS with a view to enabling commercial deployment 'in the 2020s'. The funding has been made available on a competitive basis to support qualifying CCS projects that must: (1) be CCS full chain, or part chain capable of demonstrating the prospect of being part of a full chain project in the future; (2) have the power plant and capture facility located in the UK and the storage site located offshore; (3) be operational by 2016-2020, though earlier is desirable; (4) abate CO₂ at commercial scale (or be a substantive step toward that objective) whilst meeting all relevant environmental requirements; and (5) be an electricity generator, or an industrial [CO₂] emitter where it is part of a cluster project.

The UK Department of Energy and Climate Change has also published a 'UK CCS Roadmap', which identifies planned action by the UK Government to develop a CCS industry 'in the 2020s'. The five key components of planned action are: (1) the CCS Commercialisation Programme; (2) a GBP 125 million 4-year research, development and innovation program, including establishment of a new UK CCS Research Centre; (3) development of a market for low carbon electricity through electricity market reform (including feed-in tariff contracts for difference); (4) intervention to address key barriers (including regulatory barriers) to the deployment of CCS; and (5) international engagement focused on knowledge sharing.

Country/Region: UK; Subject: Carbon Capture Readiness; Competition; State Aid