Norway's Hedged Bet on Europe's Energy Future: A Garbage Disposal for Emissions
The tanks at Oygarden, near the port city of Bergen, hold thousands of tons of liquid carbon dioxide extracted from the exhaust produced by a cement plant in southern Norway.
The carbon dioxide, which is transported by ship to the tanks, will soon be piped about 70 miles offshore and down an 8,500-foot well in the North Sea, where it will be locked away in the spongy rock, the project's developers say.
Norway has long been Europe's leading producer of oil and natural gas. Now, with an eye to a future when earnings from those resources may decline, Oslo wants to parlay the skills of the petroleum industry and its favorable geology into a kind of garbage disposal service for emissions from heavy industry.
'What we can offer is a flexible solution,' said Aksel Plener, the operations manager of the project, which is known as Northern Lights. 'So long as you have a jetty and CO2 tanks, we can go now and pick it up for you.'
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