New collaboration to explore the technological, regulatory, and commercial
possibilities of developing carbon capture at biomass-fired heat and power
plants.
Oslo/Copenhagen, March 10, 2021 - Aker Carbon Capture, Ørsted and Microsoft have
signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to 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
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.
Today, Ørsted has six biomass-fired units and provides around one quarter of
Denmark's district heating. The biomass used as fuel at Ørsted's heat and power
plants comes from sustainably managed production forests and is surplus wood,
such as sawdust from sawmills or residues from trimming or crooked trees. This
wood is of a too low quality to be used for construction or furniture. The
surplus wood can either be left to rot or be burned in the forest, or it can be
used for example to replace gas and coal in energy production. All the surplus
wood that Ørsted sources comes from growth forests which means that the carbon
emitted when the surplus wood is converted to energy is recaptured by the forest
within the span of a few years.
Even though Ørsted foresees that technologies based on renewable power will
replace a substantial part of bioenergy in the district heating towards 2040, it
expects carbon capture at a number of biomass-fired units to play an important
role in the energy transition.
"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," says
Ole Thomsen, Senior Vice President at Ørsted.
Microsoft globally participates in several initiatives to drive the reduction of
carbon emissions, and Microsoft has been carbon neutral across the world since
2012 and commits to being carbon negative by 2030. Their goal is to promote
sustainable development and low-carbon business practices globally through
sustainable business practices and cloud-enabled technologies.
"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," explains Nana Bule,
General Manager, Microsoft Denmark and Iceland.
"We're very excited to leverage and build on top of our experience from other
projects and to enter this new partnership between Aker Carbon Capture, Ørsted,
and Microsoft. In Microsoft, we take our ambitious sustainability goals
seriously, and this MoU is yet another great initiative that comes out of the
Nordic region. We all need to do more and move faster if we are to succeed on
reaching our sustainable goals," says Kimberly Lein-Mathisen, General Manager,
Microsoft Norway.
"The relationship with Ørsted and Microsoft opens for a potential first-of-a
-kind, accelerated biogenic CCS project," says Valborg Lundegaard, Chief
Executive Officer of Aker Carbon Capture.
Aker Carbon Capture has developed carbon capture technologies and delivered
projects for more than ten years and today has the solutions to support
customers across several industries, establishing sustainable business models
for the future. "Focusing on HSE-friendly capture, Aker Carbon Capture will
bring its leading capture technology to accelerate the delivery of a full
biogenic CCS value chain," says Lundegaard.
Media Relations:
Ivar Simensen, mob: +47 464 02 317, email: ivar.simensen@akerhorizons.com
Aker Carbon Capture is a pure play, carbon-capture company with solutions,
services and technologies serving a range of industries with carbon emissions,
including the cement, bio and waste-to-energy, gas-to-power and blue hydrogen
segments. Aker Carbon Capture's proprietary, carbon-capture technology offers a
unique, environmentally friendly solution for removing CO\2\ emissions. The
company is majority-owned by Aker Horizons (AKH), an investment company
dedicated to creating value and reducing emissions from renewable energy and
decarbonization technologies.
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This information is considered to be inside information pursuant to the EU
Market Abuse Regulation, and is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant
to Section 5-12 the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.
This stock exchange announcement was published by Katja Aanestad, Marketing
Communications, Aker Carbon Capture on March 10, 2021 at CET 09:00.