In what stands as great news for the status of CCS, twelve European states have legalised the storage of carbon dioxide, according to notifications sent to the European Commission. This accounts for a flurry of activity across the European Union by national legislatures getting to grips with the cutting edge of climate innovation.

The United Kingdom, Spain, France, Denmark, Ireland, Belgium, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Austria, Romania and Finland have all transposed the Commission’s CCS directive in time for the 25 June deadline. Within these states, two of the six EEPR demonstration projects and nine of the thirteen NER300 applicants are under development.

Establishing the legal framework for storage of CO₂

The purpose of the directive is to establish the legal framework for legal storage of CO₂, with its key requirement for “no significant risk of leakage and no significant environmental or health risks” posed by a storage site. Another key requirement is that all new combustion plants over 300 MWe have “capture-ready assessment”, which means to have space for CCS equipment, to have carried out studies into the availability of storage sites and feasibility of ‘retro-fitting’ capture equipment.

“We are still receiving notifications even though the deadline has already passed” said Isaac Valero-Ladron, spokesman for the European Commission.“ The Commission will issue letters of formal notice to Member States that have submitted no or only partial transposition notification as part of due process” he added.

Two mechanisms for funding deployment

As it stands, the Commission has two mechanisms for funding the deployment of CCS. Both are commonly referred to as the EEPR and the NER300s. The EEPR has already awarded €180 million to six CCS demonstration projects across the:

• UK (Hatfield);
• Netherlands (ROAD);
• Germany (Jaenschwalde);
• Poland (Belchatow);
• Spain (Compostilla); and
• Italy (Porte Tolle).

The second mechanism, NER300s, involves the auctioning of 300 million in allowances under the European Union’s emissions trading scheme, the ETS. Currently, the European Investment Bank (EIB) is ranking thirteen CCS submissions for NER300s in order of increasing cost-per-unit performance (this is a measure of how much public funding is requested per unit of CO₂ stored). A total of eight projects may be awarded NER funding, a maximum of three in each member state. Nine of the applicants can now store CO₂ emissions including seven in the UK and one in both France and Romania.

Of the Member States that have submitted CCS project proposals to the EIB for NER300 funding, the Commission has not yet received notifications from Germany, Poland Italy or the Netherlands.

Germany

As I have blogged previously, Germany is in a tight spot in regards to its storage law. It currently contains an ‘opt-out’ clause for individual German states, which risks blocking the latest draft of the act being passed. It goes for discussion before Parliament again this week.

“We are in deep concern but the situation is not hopeless” said Katharina Luise Bloemer, Vattenfall’s CCS spokeswoman.

“The delay itself is not really the problem. Far more problematic is the fact that the content of the CCS law so far makes investments nearly impossible if the law is implemented in this way and major changes are not made soon” she added.

Poland

Poland has been in the news recently for refusing to agree to an increase in emissions cuts across Europe (currently 20 per cent by 2020). Reports over the past week say the government is actively working on amending its geological and mining regulations to allow for the CCS directive. Bellona reported the current changes include a fee for municipalities paid by the storage permit holder. Belchatow is the only polish project submitted for NER300s funding and was the only Polish project awarded EEPR funds. Poland produces 92 per cent of its electricity from coal and 43 per cent of its generating capacity is over 40 years old.

Italy

On March 23 2011, the Italian Cabinet approved the decree transposing the CCS directive into law. It awaits approval by the Committee of Regions and relevant parliamentary committees. Italy was in the news recently when Porte Tolle’s project approval, received from the Environment Ministry, was overruled by its High Court. The decision was based on the fact that it is an oil-fired to coal-fired conversion, not on the CCS technology. Porto Tolle was awarded EEPR funding and is the only Italian CCS project submitted for NER300s.

The Netherlands

In the Netherlands, the directive is being transposed into the Mining Act. In January 2011, the Dutch Parliament approved the ‘Implementation Proposal’ with the Senate is set to vote on it in mid to late 2011.