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ZERO is disappointed by the Vattenfall decision to delay the Nordjylland Power Plant. As one of the largest emission sources in Europe it is not enough to just build a CCS plant now. This facility would be important as the first major facility for CO₂ capture from existing coal power plants with future plans for capture of CO₂ from biomass.

 

Facts:

Main developer: Vattenfall

The 5th February 2008 Vattenfall announced that they would develop a full CCS demonstration plant in Denmark on Nordjylland Power Station

The aim of the project was to capture CO₂ and then transport and store it in a one to two kilometre deep aquifer in the geological structure of Vedsted in Jammerbugt municipality.

The plan is to establish a fully-fledged post-combustion plant to capture CO₂ at Nordjylland Power Station (Aalborg). There will be a co-production of electricity and district heating which can achieve an overall utilization of up to 91% of the energy burned in the boiler. The power plant combust 800,000 tons of coal annually, resulting in emissions of approximately 2.8 million tonnes of CO₂. Vattenfall engaged a team of engineers and geologists to examine the CO₂ storage capacity at Vedsted. The purpose is to confirm expectations for storage capacity and the possibilities for injection and safe storage of CO₂ in the subsurface.

In the CCS demonstration plant the CO₂ will be collected and transported in liquid phase through an approximately 30 km. long pipeline to the Vedsted structure. The primary purpose of the demonstration facility is to contribute to a significant reduction in energy loss during the capture process.

The final investment decision was planed to be taken in 2010 or 2011 and CCS demonstration plant at Nordjylland Power Station should according to the plan be put into operation during 2015.

Unfortunately Vattenfall, in September 2009, postponed their plans to build a full-scale CO₂ capture plant for a coal fired power plant in Denmark. The project which originally was set to be operational in 2013 is now postponed indefinitely due to poor economic times. Local communities around Aalborg, which are meant to host the storage facility, have been protesting against the plans because of fears related to CO₂ leakage from the on shore storage site. Locals have established the organization "No to CO₂ storage". Vattenfall has met the opposition in several public meetings, giving information about the R&D results on storage security at Vedsted.

Nordjyllandsværket would trough this project removed 1.8 million tonnes of CO₂. The CO₂ capture facility was originally planned to be ready in 2013. It has now been delayed and the plan was to be completed in 2015, but is now delayed indefinitely. Vattenfall says that they still have plans for CO₂ storage for Nordjyllandsværket in the future. Vattenfall says that the company’s efforts to develop CCS in the next few years will be concentrated at one location, the Schwarze Pumpe site in Jänschwalde, Germany, where a demonstration plant is built at a lignite-fired power plant.

Timing:

In 2008 set to be in operation in 2015, postponed indefinitely in september 2009.
The storage is postponed till 2020 at least:

http://ing.dk/artikel/107076-planer-om-nordjysk-co2-lagring-begraves-til-2020 (March 2010)

 

Other Sources and Press-release:

Vattenfall postpones CO₂-storage project in Northern Jutland (Sep 2009)

Vattenfalls CCS demonstration project in northern Denmark (Feb 2008) 

Companies involved

Homepage:

http://www.vattenfall.dk

News about Nordjylland Power Station