European progress on CCS must catch up with policy, says report
2013-02-05 09:53 by Anja Reitz
During the past three months, he explained, the number of large–scale integrated CCS projects worldwide has decreased from 75 to 72, with two Dutch projects (Pegasus Rotterdam and Eemshaven CCS) put on hold, and one in the US cancelled.
“Globally, we have seen steady progress of CCS projects moving through the development lifecycle – two projects in North America recently made positive final investment decisions [FID] – but this has not been the case in Europe for some time now,” Page said.
“While the net number of projects in Europe has remained relatively stable throughout the past three years, eight European projects have been cancelled or put on hold and seven new projects announced. None have made a positive FID.”
“This reflects the ongoing difficulty for European project proponents to assemble a viable business case for a CCS project and make a positive FID to move into construction,” he added.
Page said he was disappointed by the significant setback to CCS demonstration targets in Europe as a result of no CCS projects receiving funding in the first round of the NER300 competition, despite 11 projects having passed extensive technical and financial due diligence assessments. “However, I do welcome the European Commission and Member States’ commitment to review the outcomes and process of the first round before launching the second, allowing any issues that are identified to be resolved,” he said.