The government of Norway has decided to go ahead with plans to fund 80% of the costs of two carbon capture installations, one at a cement factory and one at a waste-to-energy plant, receiving approval from the European Free Trade Association to do so. The total spend by the Norwegian government on the two installations will be €2.1 billion (US$2.46 billion), with the overall project spend being €2.57 billion, these figures being inclusive of 10 years of operating costs. The decision is particularly noteworthy because the two facilities will deliver their captured carbon to the Northern Lights facility, a sub-sea storage project in the North Sea being undertaken by Equinor, Shell and Total. With the two capture facilities going ahead, this will improve the viability of Northern Lights, allowing it to service other industrial facilities in north-west Europe, and helping to develop both carbon capture technologies and shared transport and storage infrastructure.

For more information on these two Norwegian carbon capture projects and the Northern Lights CO2 transport and storage system that they will link into, see the IFRF blogpost on 22^nd June.