Ørsted, Aker Carbon Capture, will jointly explore ways to support the development of carbon capture and storage at biomass-fired heat and power plants in Denmark.
Carbon capture and storage is widely accepted as an important instrument to meet both the Danish climate targets of 70 % carbon reduction by 2030 and to meet the Paris Agreement’s goal to limit global temperature increases to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
By capturing the carbon emitted by biomass-fired heat and power plants and storing it underground, it is possible to not only reduce, but also remove carbon from the atmosphere, as carbon from sustainable biomass is part of a natural biogenic carbon cycle.
The three companies will cooperate to address technological, regulatory, and commercial challenges and opportunities for creating negative emissions by capturing and storing carbon emitted by biomass-fired heat and power stations, with each party playing crucial and distinct commercial roles.
Under the terms of the memorandum of understanding, the parties agreed to:
- explore the possibility to jointly develop a negative emission project at one of Ørsted’s biomass plants in Denmark, potentially using Northern Lights where Microsoft is an existing partner;
- explore a technology collaboration to integrate Microsoft’s digital expertise into a biogenic carbon capture project with Aker Carbon Capture’s health, safety & environment (HSE) friendly capture technology;
- explore ways for Microsoft, Aker Carbon Capture, and Ørsted to jointly accelerate the development of a biogenic carbon capture project;
- explore and establish advocacy of policies that help accelerate the negative emission frameworks in European countries; and
- Through the successful completion of activities within these four areas, it is the ultimate vision of the parties to drive forward the process of facilitating negative emissions and reaching actual operation of a commercial and technical setup creating substantial negative emissions.
“Carbon capture will most likely be an important part of the green transition, and we see opportunities for capturing the carbon at some of our biomass-fired heat and power plants and either store it underground in order to achieve negative emissions or use the carbon for the production of green fuels in Power-to-X facilities. Therefore, we’re currently exploring the regulatory, technical, and economic possibilities of carbon capture at our facilities.”
Ole Thomsen, senior vice president at Ørsted.
“Partnership across sectors and digital innovation are key in the fight against climate change. The plan to achieve the Danish ambition of 70 % carbon reduction by 2030 relies in part on carbon capture and storage at scale, and we’re excited to support this alongside Ørsted and Aker Carbon Capture.”
Nana Bule, general manager, Microsoft Denmark and Iceland.
