Danish Energy Agency awards Ørsted the contract for the Ørsted Kalundborg Hub, advancing Denmark’s climate targets
The Danish Energy Agency (DEA) has granted Ørsted, a leading renewable energy company, a 20-year contract for its groundbreaking carbon capture and storage (CCS) initiative called the ‘Ørsted Kalundborg Hub.
This project aims to establish carbon capture facilities at two of Ørsted’s combined heat and power plants, namely the wood chip-fired Asnæs Power Station in Kalundborg and the straw-fired boiler at Avedøre Power Station in the Greater Copenhagen area.
The announcement has been met with enthusiasm by Ørsted, as the company recognizes the importance of biogenic CO2 capture and storage in combating climate change.
The project aligns with the recommendations of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and will play a significant role in achieving Denmark’s climate targets for 2025 and 2030.
Starting in 2025, the Asnæs and Avedøre power plants will begin capturing and storing approximately 430,000 tonnes of biogenic CO2 annually, making it the first step in establishing a large-scale CO2 infrastructure across Denmark.
Not only will the Asnæs Power Station serve as a hub for Ørsted’s own biogenic CO2 capture and shipping, but it may also accommodate CO2 from other emitters.
To realize this ambitious project, Ørsted has partnered with Aker Carbon Capture, a Norwegian leader in carbon capture technology. Aker Carbon Capture will provide five modular Just Catch units to the combined heat and power plants, leveraging their field-proven and proprietary carbon capture technology.
Valborg Lundegaard, CEO at Aker Carbon Capture, expressed pride in the partnership with Ørsted and emphasized the significance of this project for their standardized Just Catch offering in the mid-scale emitter market. Aker Carbon Capture looks forward to contributing to Ørsted’s decarbonization journey and Denmark’s carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) ambitions.
The captured biogenic CO2 from the Asnæs and Avedøre plants will be transported to the Northern Lights storage reservoir in the Norwegian part of the North Sea.
Ørsted has already entered into a contract with Northern Lights, which is currently developing a robust CO2 transport and storage infrastructure.
The completion of phase one of the Northern Lights project in 2024 solidifies its position as the most advanced carbon storage site in the North Sea.
By capturing and storing biogenic carbon from biomass-fired combined heat and power plants, Ørsted aims not only to reduce but also to remove CO2 from the atmosphere.
As sustainable biomass is part of a natural biogenic carbon cycle, this initiative can generate negative emissions, contributing to the fight against climate change.
The collaboration between Ørsted, Aker Carbon Capture, and Microsoft plays a crucial role in advancing the carbon capture and clean energy production via biomass-fired combined heat and power plants.
Microsoft has committed to purchasing 2.76 million tonnes of durable carbon removal over 11 years from the capture and storage of biogenic carbon from the Asnæs Power Station, marking one of the largest carbon removal offtake agreements to date.
Melanie Nakagawa, Chief Sustainability Officer at Microsoft, hailed the agreement with Ørsted as a landmark long-term commitment that supports Microsoft’s carbon-negative goal by 2030 and stimulates the growth of the carbon removal market.
This collaboration exemplifies the power of partnership and technological innovation in driving the global clean energy transition.
The Ørsted-Microsoft partnership showcases the commercial value associated with carbon capture and removal. To make this project viable,
Danish state subsidies and Microsoft’s offtake agreement were essential. This collaboration sets a precedent.