The need for CCS and Norway`s role

Speech by State Secretary Ms. Eli Blakstad at Sintef's CCS conference in Trondheim 16.06.11.

"If we are to meet the challenge of securing a sustainable future energy supply, carbon capture and storage - or CCS - is an important part of the solution. IEA suggests that CCS could account for as much as 19% of the total global mitigation needed for halving global Greenhouse Gas emissions by 2050."

The need for CCS and Norway`s role

In 2050 – we can expect to be around 9 billion people on this planet. Each day – the population on earth grows with 220.000 people - that’s more than the number of habitants in the city of Trondheim. At the same time, the middle class in the world are growing, especially in China and India. Of course they also want TV-sets, cars and refrigerators. The need for energy is bound to increase.

Today - our consumption of energy is not sustainable. To keep the increase in global mean temperature below 2 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels, the global greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced by 50 to 85 % by 2050 according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

New figures from The International Energy Agency show that greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector reached an all time high in 2010. Fossil fuels are expected to remain an important source of energy for years to come. Therefore, we need to reduce the emissions from the production and use of fossil fuels.

If we are to meet the challenge of securing a sustainable future energy supply, carbon capture and storage - or CCS - is an important part of the solution. IEA suggests that CCS could account for as much as 19% of the total global mitigation needed for halving global Greenhouse Gas emissions by 2050.

We have a long way to go. Within 2050 - we will need 3400 full scale CCS facilities according to the IEAs CCS roadmap! Two full scale CCS plants must then be installed each week between 2020 and 2050! This is a tremendous task, especially considering the limited number of installed and planned CCS-facilities today.

Norways role
Norway is a large energy producer. We are the 6th largest producer of hydroelectric power in the world. We are the 7th largest oil exporter in the world and the 2nd largest gas exporter.

In the battle for increased security of energy supply and against climate change, gas constitutes an important part of the solution for years to come. Especially given Germany’s recent decision to phase out nuclear power by 2022.

CCS on gas fired power plants would further strengthen gas as a sustainable fuel also in the future. Norway has been a frontrunner in the field on CCS and works hard to develop and deploy CCS both globally and in Norway.

Since 1996, one million tonnes of CO2 per year have been separated from the gas production on the Sleipner field in the North Sea for storage in a geological formation 1000 metres below the seabed.  On the Søhvit field, starting in April 2008, CO2 from the gas stream is separated and stored.

Norway is strongly committed to develop and contribute to a widespread dissemination of technology for carbon capture and storage. In doing so, we are building on the experiences from Sleipner and Snøhvit, in addition to the national CCS projects that I will elaborate on later in this presentation.

In order to stimulate the development, deployment and dissemination of CCS technologies at a global scale, international cooperation is a key issue. The world needs to combine efforts to succeed in reducing the global CO2 emissions.

Norway is actively participating in various international initiatives and organisations, most notably Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum, the Global CCS Institute and the Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage Initiative.

Norway works actively with the EU in the field of CCS Norway is contributing approximately 160 million Euros to the development and promotion of CCS in European Economic Area-beneficiary states. This is an important contribution in realizing 10 to 12 CCS demonstration projects in the EU.

In Norway - We have, we will and we are spending considerable resources to develop technology for carbon, capture and storage.

Up until 2010, the Norwegian government has allocated around 5.7 billion NOK for CCS-purposes. And felor 2011, the Norwegian government has devoted another 1.8 billion NOK, or approximately 220 million Euros.

Full-scale CCS Mongstad

In 2006, the state of Norway and Statoil signed an Agreement regulating the establishment of carbon capture and storage facilities at the combined heat and gas-fired power plant at the Mongstad refinery in Western Norway. The power plant emits about 1 million tonnes of CO2 per year.

The Agreement specified that the establishment of a full-scale CCS facility at Mongstad should be implemented through a stepwise approach in order to reduce costs and risks:

First, through the construction of a technology test centre, the TCM.

Second, through the planning of and preparation for a full-scale CCS facility.

Earlier this year, the government presented a Report to Storting on full-scale CCS.

The planning of a full scale CCS facility at Mongstad had to this point been a parallel process of qualification of amine capture technology and pre-engineering of the project.

However, the work on technology qualification demonstrated a need for more effort and knowledge than anticipated to make sure that there will be no undesirable effects on health and the environment from the use of amines.

That being said, it is important to point out that amine technology is considered to be the most mature technology at this point. We are optimistic that the challenges related to HSE and amines will be solved.

As such, the planning process has been adjusted so that technology qualification will be completed prior to the pre-engineering of the full scale project.

On the basis of the information currently available, the government will present a foundation for an investment decision to the Storting no later than 2016.  

However, if a technology should be adequately developed and qualified before the estimated three years, technology selection will be addressed immediately.
TCM

Even though we are still in the planning phase for full-scale CCS at Mongstad, it is important to stress that construction work are taking place there as we speak.

The Technology Centre Mongstad is an essential part of the government’s strategy for CCS and the main goal for the centre is to establish an arena for targeted development, testing and qualification of technology for CCS

TCM is designed to capture 100,000 tonnes of CO2 per year. This makes it the largest CO2-demonstration facility in the world – and we are getting acknowledgements that TCM is unique in a global context

The government, in partnership with Statoil, Shell and the South African company Sasol are the owners of TCM.

Extensive testing of two different capture technologies will take place at TCM

These technologies are Aker Clean Carbon’s amine technology and Alstom’s chilled ammonia concept. Both these technologies will be tested on two different flue gas sources, with flue gases relevant for both gas and coal fired plants

The centre is now more than 75 % completed, with testing of Aker and Alstom’s capture technologies scheduled to start in 2012

The ambition is also that the experiences gained should be made available internationally in what is essentially a global effort to reduce costs and risks related to CCS technologies.

Research and development - CLIMIT

All known capture technologies are still immature

We need to reduce costs – and risks.

We need to reduce the energy use.

And we need to develop new and innovative solutions.

Through the CLIMIT-programme, the government will financially support the entire development chain within CCS, from long-term research for competence building to demonstration projects. CLIMIT’s vision is to contribute to profitable CO2 capture from power plants and industrial sources.

The programme manages approximately 180 MNOK or 22 million Euros to support activities in 2011.

Additionally, the Government established in 2009 eight Centres for Environment-friendly Energy Research (CEER). Two of these centres have focus on CCS.

I would also like to point out that the government has tripled its spending on R&D for renewable energy, energy efficiency and CCS with approximately 300 per cent over the last four years, from around 200 million NOK to almost 800 million.

The research community and the industry must cooperate to find the best solutions. This is challenging due to the marked situation for CCS. Therefore, I would like to commend the very interesting cooperation between NTNU, Sintef and Aker Clean Carbon in the SOLVIT-project which is supported by the CLIMIT-programme.

As I said earlier, we need to install several thousands of full scale CCS-plants to achieve the two-degree target. Research and development of technology will be essential to achieve this goal and to secure a sustainable energy system. I therefore hope this conference will be constructive and rewarding for you all.