ROAD stands for ‘Rotterdam Opslag en Afvang Demonstratieproject’ (Rotterdam Capture and Storage Demonstration Project) and is one of the largest integrated demonstration projects in the world for the capture and storage of CO₂, based on a new coal-fired power station located outside of Rotterdam, the Netherlands. 

Because the ROAD project is the first of its kind in the Netherlands, applying for all the necessary permits is one of the most challenging parts of the project. CCS projects face complex and time consuming permitting processes linked to the implementation of the European CCS Directive and the wide range of permitting authorities to deal with. Also, because of funding requirements, time is limited to obtain all the definitive permits before the Final Investment Decision (FID) date.

In this report, the permitting process of the ROAD CCS project in the Netherlands is first described and then evaluated, starting with the description of current legal and regulatory frameworks to the specific evaluation of the ROAD’s permitting process approach. This report aims to help similar CCS projects to identify the attention points and needed conditions to get a successful permitting process.