The EU’s first full-scale CO₂ storage facility has entered industrial operation in Denmark, with preliminary capability to completely retailer as much as 400,000 tonnes of CO₂ a yr beneath the North Sea.1
King Frederik X of Denmark formally opened the Greensand facility on 18 September on the Port of Esbjerg. The mission is led by INEOS Power in partnership with Harbour Power and the Danish North Sea Fund (Nordsøfonden).2
The opening marks Greensand’s transition from demonstration mission to commercial-scale operation. The mission first injected CO₂ into the Nini West reservoir in 2023, demonstrating the cross-border transport and offshore storage of captured CO₂.3 In September 2024, the consortium introduced that the pilot section had been accomplished and independently verified, and outlined plans for a large-scale facility succesful initially of storing as much as 400,000 tonnes per yr.4
In its first industrial section, Greensand is anticipated to retailer as much as 400,000 tonnes of CO₂ yearly, with the builders figuring out potential for capability to extend to between 4 million and eight million tonnes per yr as demand and infrastructure develop.5
Initially, the CO₂ will come primarily from Danish biomethane crops reasonably than massive industrial emitters. The captured CO₂ is liquefied and transported by street to a devoted terminal on the Port of Esbjerg earlier than being carried offshore by Carbon Destroyer 1, a purpose-built CO₂ provider.6
It’s then injected into the depleted Nini West oil reservoir, round 250 kilometres offshore and roughly 1,800 metres beneath the seabed, for everlasting geological storage.7
The European Fee authorized the proposed storage allow for Nini West in 2025. Documentation submitted for the mission envisaged the injection of two.4 million tonnes of CO₂ over an eight-year interval starting in 2026.8
David Bucknall, CEO of INEOS Power, stated the mission introduced the EU’s “first full-scale CO₂ storage website and worth chain into operation”, offering infrastructure on which future carbon seize initiatives might construct.9
INEOS chairman Sir Jim Ratcliffe stated: “This isn’t a pilot mission, an idea or a political ambition. It’s a absolutely operational carbon transport and storage enterprise. The expertise works. The storage is prepared. The problem now’s creating the proper situations for carbon seize to scale throughout Europe.”
The event comes because the EU seeks a considerable growth in CO₂ transport and storage infrastructure to help the decarbonisation of industries the place emissions are troublesome to eradicate.
Beneath the EU’s Internet-Zero Trade Act, the bloc is focusing on no less than 50 million tonnes of annual CO₂ injection capability by 2030. The European Fee estimates that roughly 250 million tonnes of captured CO₂ might should be completely saved annually from 2040 to help the EU’s climate-neutrality goals.10
Greensand’s preliminary 400,000-tonne capability is equal to round 0.8% of the EU’s 2030 injection-capacity goal, illustrating the dimensions of further infrastructure that may be required over the rest of the last decade.11
The Fee says three CO₂ storage websites within the EU have already been permitted and one other seven are within the allowing course of, with dozens of initiatives underneath improvement. It has nonetheless stated further initiatives, sooner allowing and larger funding might be wanted to achieve the 2030 goal.12
European Commissioner for Power and Housing Dan Jørgensen described the Greensand opening as “an necessary milestone for Europe”, saying it demonstrated a transfer from CCS demonstration to deployment.13
Whereas the preliminary Greensand volumes are principally biogenic CO₂, INEOS says the power is meant finally to obtain captured emissions from industries elsewhere in Europe as industrial seize initiatives develop.14
Norway’s Northern Lights mission started storing CO₂ in August 2025, making it an earlier European landmark within the improvement of business CO₂ storage, albeit outdoors the EU. Greensand is the primary mission of its scale to enter operation throughout the EU.15
Notes
[1] INEOS Power, “INEOS opens the primary full-scale CO₂ storage website within the EU”, 18 September 2026; [2] Ibid; [3] Envirotec, “Denmark’s first CCS facility is able to obtain CO2”, September 2024; [4] Ibid; [5] INEOS Power, “INEOS opens the primary full-scale CO₂ storage website within the EU”, 18 September 2026; [6] Ibid; [7] Ibid; [8] European Fee, Fee Opinion on the draft allow for the everlasting storage of carbon dioxide within the Nini West depleted oil area, 19 November 2025; [9] INEOS Power, “INEOS opens the primary full-scale CO₂ storage website within the EU”, 18 September 2026; [10] European Fee, “The EU’s 2030 carbon storage goal”. The Internet-Zero Trade Act units a goal of no less than 50 million tonnes of annual injection capability by 2030; the Fee estimates roughly 250 million tonnes of CO₂ will should be completely saved yearly from 2040; [11] Calculation primarily based on Greensand’s acknowledged preliminary capability of 400,000 tonnes per yr and the EU goal of fifty million tonnes per yr: 400,000 ÷ 50,000,000 = 0.8%; [12] European Fee, “The EU’s 2030 carbon storage goal”; [13] INEOS Power, “INEOS opens the primary full-scale CO₂ storage website within the EU”, 18 September 2026; [14] Ibid; [15] Reuters, “INEOS says EU’s first full-scale carbon storage mission to begin working”, 18 September 2026
