Norway-based carbon capture, transport, and storage (CCS) initiative Northern Lights has announced that it will start its first CO2 storage operations in early 2025.
On September 26, Norwegian Minister of Energy Terje Aasland led the official opening of the Northern Lights CO2 transport and storage facility in Øygarden, near Bergen.
This project is developed by a joint venture between Equinor, Shell, and TotalEnergies in collaboration with the Norwegian government.
As part of the large-scale Norwegian carbon capture and storage (CCS) plan called Longship, Northern Lights represents a developed network of infrastructure that will transport liquid CO2 from industrial sources to their onshore receiving terminal in Øygarden. From there, the carbon will be transported for storage via pipelines to a saline aquifer, 2600 m below the North Sea floor.
In a press release, the project developers shared that their Øygarden facilities will receive the first carbon dioxide at the beginning of next year.
According to project operator Equinor, the initial carbon storage capacity of 1.5 million tons (Mt) per year is already fully booked. To meet the high demand, TotalEnergies shared that the partners are working on extending the storage volume to over 5 Mt of carbon per year in the following phase of the project.
Commenting on the announcement, Equinor CEO Anders Opedal highlighted that the completion of the Norther Lights facility represents a big leap in the global development of a business model for carbon capture, transport, and storage, and it marks the launch of a decarbonization value chain for European industry and energy.
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He said, “This project demonstrates what can be achieved when authorities and industry are working towards the same goal and co-invest to reduce risks.”
Conveying the same sentiments, Arnaud Le Foll, senior VP for new business—carbon neutrality, at TotalEnergies, commented, “It has been a long journey since our partnership with the Norwegian State, Equinor, and Shell was established in 2017. This major milestone signals the readiness of the infrastructure to store CO2, and we look forward to receiving the first volumes from hard-to-abate emitters in 2025.”
Read more: Green Light For Northern Lights: EU Approves €131M Funding
