Climeworks to study large-scale DAC+S deployment in Norway

Key take-aways

Climeworks has been awarded 2.2m CHF (26m NOK) in Norwegian funding from Enova, the state enterprise owned by the Norwegian government’s Ministry of Climate and Environment.
Funding will go towards a feasibility study for a multi-kiloton-capacity direct air capture & storage (DAC+S) plant in Norway.
Norway’s renewable energy, coupled with its vast availability and potential for geological CO₂ storage make it an ideal location for large-scale DAC+S deployment.
Alongside Orca and Mammoth in Iceland, a DAC+S plant in Norway would establish the Nordics as world-leading accelerators of carbon removal as a climate solution.

An illustrative example of a Climeworks DAC+S plant in Norway

Climeworks, the global leader in carbon dioxide removal (CDR) via DAC+S technology, has been awarded 2.2m CHF (26m NOK) in funding from Enova, at 50 percent funding intensity, in the framework of Enova’s “Preliminary Study Carbon Capture 2030”. Enova aims to help companies that want to capture large amounts of CO₂ to get closer to an investment decision for capture plants, with the goal of operation by 2030. Climeworks is one of nine projects awarded, whose combined targeted capture capacity totals 1.7m tons of CO₂ per year. This corresponds to almost half of all emissions from passenger cars in Norway.

Nils Kristian Nakstad, CEO of Enova

We are pleased to be able to support Climeworks’ work in the development of industrial carbon removal projects. This technology will play a decisive role in the transition to a low-emission society, and this project is an important step in the right direction.

Andreas Aepli, Chief Financial Officer at Climeworks

We are thrilled and honored to have been awarded funding from Enova for a feasibility study in Norway for our project Norse Pine. This will undoubtedly accelerate direct air capture as a climate solution, both in the Nordics and globally – something we are truly grateful to Enova for enabling.

Ideal conditions for large-scale DAC+S

A clean energy source and safe, permanent storage options are what Climeworks requires for large-scale CDR via DAC technology and Norway offers the ideal conditions for both. Norway has significant availability of renewable energy, with 98% of electricity produced from renewable sources, such as hydro. With regard to storage, Norway is a global leader in the development and availability of geological CO₂ storage. Coupled with this, the storage potential is vast; many gigatons of CO₂ could be stored in the Norwegian Continental Shelf.

This next step in Norway is a continuation of both Climeworks' global scale-up journey and its dedication to leading the global roll-out of DAC+S with the utmost integrity. This funding for a feasibility study in Norway marks the first step in validating the country’s potential for scalable and high-quality DAC+S deployment that could position Norway as one of the Nordic pioneers in the global carbon removal efforts crucial to fighting climate change.

Importance of DAC in Norwegian climate strategy

The Norwegian government has long been investigating how it can best support industrial carbon removal in its journey to multi-megaton scale and contribute to the country’s national climate targets. This dedicated funding allocation for DAC is an important signal from Enova and the Norwegian government on the importance of DAC in the Norwegian climate strategy and its contribution to the industrial shift towards a thriving green industry.

Parallel to this funding allocation, an external investigation commissioned by the Norwegian Environment Agency has assessed several economic support mechanisms (such as reverse auctions, reverse tax credits, public procurement, and direct investments). Climeworks welcomes this important political momentum on the climate and industrial opportunity of large-scale CDR in Norway. Public policy is critical to enabling the drastic scale-up of CDR solutions that the world needs.