00:00Why are Norway and the U.S. ahead of Germany on carbon capture and storage?
00:06And what is it exactly?
00:08Both countries benefit from the technical know-how of their oil and gas industries,
00:13and they're heavily investing in CCS technology.
00:17The Norwegian government has supported our part of the project with 80% funding.
00:26In Breivik, Norway, Heidelberg Materials began revamping a cement factory last year.
00:31They're installing a carbon capture plant without disrupting daily operations.
00:36The German company wants to launch the first net-zero cement produced using carbon capture and storage.
00:42Here's how it works.
00:44An industrial facility like the one in Breivik separates and captures the CO2 from its smokestack emissions.
00:51The CO2 is liquefied and shipped to a storage location.
00:55Then it's injected through a pipeline up to three kilometers under the seabed into deep sandstone formations.
01:02The CO2 can also be stored on land and transported by truck, rail or pipelines.
01:09So why is it so hard to produce cement without carbon emissions?
01:16Flinker is the main ingredient of cement.
01:21And in that kiln process, there's a lot of CO2 coming out of the limestone.
01:28This is Jan Teulen. He's a 30-year veteran of the cement industry.
01:33We try, of course, to reduce the amount of clinker in cement.
01:38That's an ever-decreasing factor.
01:41But there is a limit, because at a certain moment, your cement will not perform anymore.
01:47You will not have concrete which has the performance that it needs.
01:52So there are technical limits.
01:55CCS technology is intended for use in hard-to-abate sectors like steel, chemicals and the cement industry.
02:03Industries that can't completely eliminate carbon emissions.
02:07But why is a German company coming all the way to Norway for this?
02:11It's fairly simple.
02:13CCS technology is banned in Germany.
02:16Economics minister Robert Habeck wants to change that.
02:19He also paid a visit to Breivik.
02:21Early adopter Norway introduced CCS in 1996.
02:25Now they're investing 1.5 billion euros in the longship project,
02:29which aims to show how vast amounts of captured carbon can be safely transported
02:34and locked away under the seabed, at a profit.
02:38I think this really is a shift in the debate,
02:42that they are interested in CO2 to make money off their storage capacity.
02:49This is Felix Schenewald. He studies European climate policy.
02:54So they are really asking for EU member states,
02:58do you want to export your CO2?
03:00We have the capacity here, we have the technology.
03:04Northern Lights is part of the longship project.
03:07Owned by Shell, Total Energies and Equinor,
03:11its new CO2 storage facility is due to go online in 2024.
03:16The companies have partnered with the Norwegian government.
03:19They'll receive subsidies in the development phase
03:22and in the first 10 years of operation.
03:24The goal? Job creation.
03:26And lucrative business in carbon transport and storage.
03:30Industrial partner Heidelberg Materials is also profiting from the new technology
03:35and the generous subsidies that will help revamp its facility.
03:39The Norwegian government has supported our part of the project with 80% funding.
03:48The whole investment is a few hundred million.
03:52But Breivik is just one of about 140 facilities operated by Heidelberg Materials,
03:58one of the world's largest concrete manufacturers.
04:01They're planning to invest some 1.5 billion euros by 2030, including in the US.
04:07That's also because President Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act
04:11offers financial incentives to companies that invest in carbon capture and storage.
04:17In 2023, the largest number of CCS facilities were under construction in the US,
04:23followed by Canada, the UK, China and Norway.
04:27And this map depicts the commercial ventures that are already in operation.
04:32But why is the US so advanced when it comes to carbon capture and storage?
04:36It is also important that they don't really have this discussion about how to evade emissions,
04:42at least not the way we have it in Germany.
04:45So in the US, you could also capture fossil CO2 and store it underground.
04:51To find out more, let's take a look at what's called Enhanced Oil Recovery,
04:56a technology that's been employed mainly in North America for more than 50 years.
05:02High-pressure CO2 is injected into an oil field, raising the pressure underground.
05:08The crude oil becomes more viscous and can be pumped to the surface more easily.
05:14But what are the risks?
05:17Scientists say that some 150 billion tons of CO2 could be stored under the North Sea,
05:24a region that includes a number of marine protection zones.
05:28But what if there's a leak?
05:30Leakage is possible.
05:32And the biggest problem are probably the old wells.
05:36So if you want to look at the North Sea as an example,
05:40we have there something like 17,000 wells that have been drilled in the past,
05:46over the last decades, mostly to look for oil and gas.
05:50And it's often unclear what were these old wells, these abandoned wells.
05:55But maybe a pathway for CO2 leakage, that's something that needs to be considered.
06:01Let's recap.
06:03Countries like Norway have been on board with CCS for quite a while.
06:07They have a big technological edge and are subsidizing CCS on a grand scale.
06:12That's also true in the US under Biden.
06:15Norway and the US also benefit from the know-how of their oil and gas industries.
06:21Germany still has to legalize CCS and might export CO2 to Norway.
06:27One thing's for sure, the technology is expensive and it's not without risk.
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