The Swedish energy company Stockholm Exergi receives 180 million euros from the EU’s innovation fund: Here’s why
Sweden-based Stockholm Exergian energy company planning to build Europe’s first large-scale facility for negative emissions, announced on Friday that it has received 180 million euros from the EU Innovation Fund.
According to Stockholm Exergi, the Bioenergy facility with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) will be ready to capture 800,000 tonnes of biogenic carbon dioxide each year. The facility will contribute to Sweden’s, and Swedish and international companies’ goal of achieving net zero emissions.
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About the EU Innovation Fund
The EU Innovation Fund is one of the world’s largest funding programs to demonstrate innovative technologies that help reduce CO2 emissions. The fund’s goal is to bring industrial solutions to market between 2020 and 2030 to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in Europe and support its transition to climate neutrality.
A total of 311 projects applied for funding in this ongoing round and seven were selected to share the € 1.1 billion allocated fund.
Stockholm Exergis BECCS project
Stockholm Exergi finances and builds a full-scale BECCS plant at its KVV8 biopower plant in Stockholm. The BECCS plant will have a catch capacity of almost 800,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.
The company says that to ensure that the project’s entire value chain is included in the investment, it is required that an agreement is signed regarding transport and permanent storage of captured carbon dioxide.
These negotiations are ongoing and will be an important part of the work of preparing the decision on how the project will be financed, which is planned for 2023.
Stockholm Exergi’s CEO, Anders Egelrud, says: “We work intensively to achieve full financing of the project and have several dialogues with companies that are considering buying CRC to compensate or neutralize their remaining emissions and become” net-zero “. Our goal is to enter into agreements with potential buyers prior to our final investment decision in 2023. “
To secure the financing of the BECCS facility, Stockholm Exergi believes that three main financing flows are needed, of which support from the EU Innovation Fund is one of them. The other two sources are the Swedish state through a so-called reverse auction, the details of which will be decided in 2022; and income from the sale of so-called Carbon Removal Certificates (CRC) in the voluntary carbon dioxide market.
The BECCS project
The EU Innovation Fund has chosen to support seven European projects that contribute to combating climate change with innovative technologies. Stockholm Exergi’s project to establish a large-scale plant for the separation and permanent storage of biogenic carbon dioxide is the only one of the seven projects that uses BECCS technology.
Anders Egelrud says: “The support from the EU Innovation Fund is very important to us. This means that we can keep our schedule for opening the full-scale facility. The support also represents a clear recognition of the project, a recognition that is particularly important in our work to be a catalyst for establishing a market for negative emissions. “
Coal separation is being developed as a complement to Stockholm Exergi’s existing biopower plant in Hjorthagen in Stockholm. At its research facility, which opened in 2019, Stockholm Exergi has been able to show the scope of the project’s innovation with “high levels” of energy efficiency and sustainability.
Tests show that it has been possible to capture almost 90 percent of biogenic carbon dioxide with high energy efficiency levels thanks to extensive heat recovery and reuse against Stockholm’s district heating network.
The company says, “More than 800,000 Stockholmers and more than 400 hospitals, data centers and other businesses are connected to the district heating network, connected to our heating and cogeneration plants from Högdalen in the south to Brista in the north. With a joint venture, we drive Stockholm forward with the potential to become the world’s first climate-positive capital. ”
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