Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a critical part of stopping global warming. Germany´s RWE is moving the debate in Germany toward an opportunity to change things for the better.
It was a tough year for carbon capture and storage in Germany. There was an ongoing battle between the renewable-only idealists and those who see renewable energy and other solutions such as CCS as crucial to a sustainable future. Political indecision and a heavy dose of fear-mongering clouded the acceptance of CCS, and put a halt to implementing urgently needed test sites.
As Siegfried Vennekate, Deputy Head of RWE DEA’s CCS Program, points out, the emotion was hard to see through. “Missing from the debate was a rational, scientific explanation that tells the full story – that CCS is a critical part of stopping global warming.”
Mr Vennekate sets a large chunk of sandstone down gently on the table. The piece of rock, a sample from deep underground, is an essential accessory to the peculiarly German story he is about to tell.
A valiant start
It starts with the EU legislation enacted in 2009 setting out a unified energy policy and approach to climate change. The law also obliges each EU member state to implement a legal framework for CCS. To implement such a framework is much more complex in Germany for many reasons. The first is the fact that the different technologies evolved under several different government ministries, making the regulatory framework excessively bureaucratic.
The second and perhaps most hard-hitting reason is the highly polarised energy debate in Germany. “We need to create a new energy reality in Germany to break this narrow thinking.”
Not under my backyard
The rock is from the state of Schleswig-Holstein, where the sandstone formations are ideal for underground CO2 storage. Holding it aloft, Mr Vennekate says: “This is where we want to store the CO2 we capture, but the German public doesn’t agree.”
Another layer of complexity is the mercurial nature of the political process. There was initial enthusiasm around the idea, including a scramble to secure funding for CCS research projects in 2007. But many politicians have since changed their views due to public opposition.
Mr Vennekate adds, “Everyone says, ‘of course, I want to save the climate’. But if you ask ‘do you want CO2 storage under your village or town?’, they say no. The discussion stops with ‘NIMBY’ – not in my backyard. People ignore the realities. What is in your sparkling water? What is 4% of what comes out of your mouth in every breath? These are all part of the story that needs to be told.”
The German government’s attempt to pass a CCS law was shelved due to the political backlash. RWE and other companies were asked to freeze their CCS development activities until another attempt could be made.
Play it again
The German government has just reintroduced a new proposal for the CCS law, albeit one scaled down for demonstration plants only. Mr Vennekate points out that making CCS a reality is no longer just about technology, but about public acceptance. “A lot of effort has to be made to get the right story on the streets.
“We have the tools and experience of extracting gas from underground formations. In places like Sleipner (Norway), they have been injecting CO2 for over 14 years. In the US, CO2 pipeline transport has been happening for over 30 years. So we know the technology challenge of CO2 storage is not insurmountable. But human emotions can be.”
Guidelines for an industry that does not yet exist
RWE was part of a DNV-led industry project to facilitate large-scale adoption of CCS by overcoming the lack of standards, unified industry approach to implementation and coherent story to gain public confidence. Thirteen leading industry players participated including BP, Shell, Statoil and RWE with the resulting guidelines – CO2QUALSTOR – articulating best practice, existing and emerging regulations, standards and directives for geological storage of CO2.
“DNV’s facilitation of the knowledge sharing process was extremely valuable for us – understanding what worked for offshore, onshore and how to apply the learning from each.”
He continues, “But DNV’s approach to risk management has also been instrumental for helping us address ‘the German situation’. Germans authorities rely on rules, figures and facts. They don’t understand things like mitigation measures, and reducing risk, etc. It’s all or nothing. DNV’s approach to risk assessment helps us better explain to authorities how this will work so that we can gain their support. This ultimately makes the legal framework even better.”
The CO2QUALSTOR guidelines, published in 2010, will help harmonise implementation of regulations for CO2 storage and facilitate communication between operators, regulators and third parties. “RWE is one of the few companies that can actually deliver the full CCS value chain – from pre- and post-combustion capture, pipeline compression and reservoir evaluation and modelling for storage. So the guidelines provide an important step for us in moving the implementation of CCS forward.”
He takes a deep breath. You sense that there is hard work ahead. “Yes,” he says, “convincing the public that this rock under their backyard is an important part of the solution to climate change will not be easy. But I want to be able to say to my neighbour that it’s NOT a risk, and that I’m proud to have it under my backyard, because it’s fighting climate change.”