Ørsted announced yesterday (May 27) it will sell a further one million tonnes of carbon removal over a 10-year period to Microsoft from the Avedøre Power Station, which is part of the bioenergy carbon capture and storage (BECCS) project ‘Ørsted Kalundborg CO2 Hub’.
This builds on an existing commitment by Microsoft to buy 2.67 million tonnes from Asnæs Power Station, bringing the total purchase under contract to 3.67 million tonnes of CO2.
Though described as a ‘landmark deal’ by Ørsted, it effectively takes more than 400,000 tonnes per year of biogenic CO2 off the table permanently.
As part of the ‘Ørsted Kalundborg CO2 Hub’, Ørsted will establish carbon capture at its wood chip-fired Asnæs Power Station in Kalundborg in western Zealand (eastern Denmark) and at the Avedøre Power Station’s straw-fired boiler in the Greater Copenhagen area. The 430,000 tonnes per year of biogenic CO2 from the combined heat and power (CHP) plants will be shipped to a storage reservoir in the Norwegian part of the North Sea and stored permanently.
The ‘Ørsted Kalundborg CO2 Hub’ is set to become operational by the beginning of 2026.
Ørsted was awarded a 20-year subsidy contract for the CCS project by the Danish Energy Agency (DEA) in May 2023. It will establish carbon capture at the wood chip-fired Asnæs Power Station in Kalundborg in western Zealand and at Avedøre Power Station’s straw-fired boiler in the Greater Copenhagen area.
Ørsted will capture 150,000 tonnes of biogenic CO2 per year from the straw-fired unit at Avedøre Power Station, which will initially be transported by lorry to Asnæs Power Station until an improved CO2 infrastructure can be established.
It will also capture 280,000 tonnes of biogenic CO2 per year from the wood chip-fired unit at Asnæs Power Station, which will also function as a CO2 hub – handling and shipping biogenic CO2 from both the Avedøre and Asnæs combined heat and power stations to the Northern Lights storage reservoir in the Norwegian part of the North Sea.
