Stockholm Exergi is now taking the next concrete step towards the establishment of a full-scale facility for BECCS – technology used to capture and store biogenic carbon dioxide. This week marks the beginning of a consultation period with the local community and members of the general public impacted by the project. This dialogue is an important part of the process to obtain a construction permit for the new facility that will create 800,000 tonnes of negative emissions.
Stockholm Exergi’s goal is to construct a full-scale BECCS facility within just a few years. The company’s BECCS efforts began in 2016 and a research facility was established three years later. Thanks to strong results from the research facility, the development of a full-scale facility has gradually gained momentum. As part of the permitting process to construct the new facility, Stockholm Exergi is now taking the next step and initiating a consultation period with the local community and members of the general public who will be impacted by the project.
– Our work has now advanced to the point where we would like to open up for the kind of dialogue that a consultation entails. This is an important phase for obtaining feedback that we can use in the continued development of the full-scale facility, said Per Ytterberg, Business Development Manager at Stockholm Exergi and responsible for the BECCS project.
The UN’s climate panel IPCC has stated that solely reducing carbon emissions to reach the 1.5 °C target set in the Paris Agreement will not be enough, and negative emissions will be needed as well. The potential to create negative emissions in Stockholm Exergi’s new facility is significant: when operational, it will capture 800,000 tonnes of biogenic carbon dioxide per year, which is more than the fossil fuel emissions from Stockholm’s road traffic for an entire year.
The purpose of Stockholm Exergi’s community and general public consultation period that has now begun is, among other things, to inform these groups about the project and gather information and comments ahead of the company’s upcoming work with the facility’s permitting application and environmental impact statement.
– The consultation period is an important milestone for us. In addition to the ongoing permitting work and facility design, we are simultaneously working intensively with financing. We were granted support from the EU Innovation Fund, which is very meaningful. But in order to create the right conditions for financing, the promised state support needs to be in place and a market for negative emissions established as well, said Per Ytterberg.
Stockholm Exergi is leading the development of BECCS and its goal to have the facility operational by 2026, thereby contributing to the Swedish national climate target of net zero emissions by 2045 and the city of Stockholm’s goal of being climate-positive by 2040.
Facts about BECCS
BECCS (Bio-Energy with Carbon Capture and Storage) means that biogenic carbon dioxide from the combustion of biofuels is separated from flue gas and then permanently stored. Since the carbon dioxide captured earlier has been bound by the forest through photosynthesis, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is reduced, thereby creating negative emissions.
