Denmark opens first industrial CO2 storage facility in the North Sea

The increasing amount of CO2 in the atmosphere is one of the biggest challenges to curbing man-made climate change. In order to reduce this, a special project has gone into regular operation in Denmark: the storage of greenhouse gases in the sea.

Denmark's King Frederik X has officially opened a storage facility for carbon dioxide in the seabed in the port city of Esbjerg. In the future, up to 400,000 tons of liquefied carbon dioxide will be transported to a storage facility at a depth of around 1,800 meters and stored in the seabed. CO2 storage in the Danish North Sea has been tested in the depleted Nini West oil field since 2023. In the pilot phase of the “Greensand” project, around 15,000 tons of liquefied carbon dioxide ended up there every year.

The technology is called Carbon Capture and Storage, or CCS for short, and it works like this: CO2 is captured during industrial processes, brought to an underground storage facility and permanently stored there. Experts consider the method to be safe, but environmentalists have concerns - also because they fear that the technology encourages the elimination of harmful greenhouse gases rather than ambitiously reducing emissions at the source.

According to those responsible, "Greensand" is the first storage site in the EU where CO2 is stored on an industrial scale. EU Energy and Housing Commissioner Dan Jørgensen called the opening "an important milestone for Europe". The project shows industry a way to continue its transition to a low-carbon future while maintaining production, investment and jobs on our continent.

Up to eight million tons of storage capacity

A facility for commercial CO2 storage already exists off the coast of Norway. The British chemical company Ineos is working with Harbor Energy and the Danish state-owned company Nordsøfonden on the project in the North Sea off Denmark. The storage capacities of the deposit are to be expanded by 2030. Four to eight million tons of carbon dioxide should then be able to be stored there every year.

But even that is "incredibly little" from a European perspective, says Danish professor of sustainable energy planning, Brian Vad Mathiesen, from Aalborg University: "If we want to become climate neutral, we have to rely on storing CO2 in one way or another." Because some emissions are considered almost unavoidable - for example in the cement industry. So far, however, as is so often the case, the problem is, among other things, the price, according to the expert: the technology is still too expensive in comparison for more companies to resort to this solution and capture CO2 in order to improve their climate footprint. There are many cheaper alternatives.

The 400,000 tons per year is the amount “that the market is prepared to deliver,” according to the consortium. Above all, the project should show that capturing and storing CO2 on a large scale is possible. So far, the carbon dioxide comes mainly from Danish biogas plants. In the future, Ineos and Co. hope to also be able to attract large German industrial companies. But politicians need to create better framework conditions for this, say those responsible.

In Germany, the black-red coalition paved the way for underground storage of greenhouse gases last year. The Federal Republic wants to be climate neutral by 2045, i.e. not emit more greenhouse gases than can be stored again. The federal government sees an opportunity in CCS technology for emissions that are difficult to avoid, for example from industry. Chancellor Friedrich Merz also sees economic opportunities for German companies in this.