Northern Lights has received confirmation that all the required permits are in place to start injecting and storing CO2 in the Aurora CCS licence in the North Sea. 

The Ministry of Energy, the Ministry of Climate and Environment, the Norwegian Environmental Agency (NEA) and Norwegian Ocean Industry Authority (Havtil) have all given their consents for the first phase of Northern Lights.  

“This is a major milestone for the carbon capture and storage chain in Norway. The Norwegian authorities have granted the permits required to inject and store CO2 on the Norwegian continental shelf. With these consents in place, we are on track to safely start CO2 transport and storage operations in Northern Lights,” says Tim Heijn, Managing Director of Northern Lights JV.  

The permit granted is for the injection and storage of 37.5 million tonnes of CO2 from this year and the next 25 years. This covers the first phase of Northern Lights development with a capacity to transport and store 1.5 million tonnes of CO2 per year. 

Commerciale-based investment decision to expand capacity
In March, Northern Lights JV announced its’ final investment decision for the expansion project which will increase transport and storage capacity to a minimum of 5 million tonnes CO2 per year. The expansion is enabled by a grant from the Connecting Europe Facility for Energy (CEF Energy) funding scheme. 

Northern Lights ready to start operations in 2025
The first phase development of Northern Lights is completed and ready to receive CO2 from Norwegian and European industrial emitters. Operations are scheduled to start this summer, with the first CO2 transport and storage from Heidelberg Materials’ cement factory in Brevik, as part of the Longship project by the Norwegian government.