Norway is set to inaugurate a significant undersea carbon dioxide storage facility on Thursday, marking a key milestone for the Northern Lights project, which aims to provide commercial CO2 transport and storage services.

The initiative plans to capture CO2 emissions from factories across Europe and inject them into geological reservoirs beneath the seabed, helping to mitigate climate change.

The terminal, located on Oygarden Island, features large storage tanks facing the North Sea.

The liquefied CO2 will be transported by boat and injected into the seabed at depths of about 2.6 kilometers (1.6 miles) for permanent storage.

The facility, a collaboration between oil giants Equinor, Shell, and TotalEnergies, is expected to begin burying its first CO2 deliveries by 2025, with an initial capacity of 1.5 million tonnes per year, potentially expanding to five million tonnes if demand increases.

The Northern Lights Managing Director, emphasized the project’s goal of demonstrating the feasibility of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology, which is crucial for reducing CO2 emissions from hard-to-decarbonize industries like cement and steel.

Despite its promise, CCS technology faces challenges due to high costs and dependence on subsidies.

The Norwegian government has funded 80 percent of the Northern Lights project, which is part of a broader 30-billion-kroner ($2.9 billion) initiative called “Longship.”

While the Heidelberg Materials cement factory in Brevik plans to send captured emissions to the site next year, rising costs have led to reconsiderations by other facilities.

Despite its potential benefits, some environmentalists criticize CCS as a means for fossil fuel companies to extend their operations.

Greenpeace Norway’s head, Frode Pleym, argued that the project serves as “greenwashing” for oil companies, allowing them to continue their activities without addressing their significant emissions.

“Their goal is to be able to continue pumping oil and gas. CCS, the electrification of platforms and all of these kinds of measures are cynically used by the oil industry to avoid doing anything about their enormous emissions,” he said.

“Public support was and will be crucial to help such innovative projects to advance, especially as CCS costs are still higher than the costs of CO2 emissions in Europe,” The Global CCS Institute Public Affairs Director at the Daniela Peta said.

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