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Typically, only one in 200‘ megaprojects’- projects with a capital cost above € 1 billion- is delivered on time, on budget, and to the highest quality. For Stockholm Exergi, this is the exact goal it’ s striving to reach with Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage( BECCS) Stockholm – a € 1.2 billion facility being built on the city’ s harborfront, against a company turnover of just € 800 million. According to Egil Nybakk, the company’ s BECCS Director, it’ s one of the most closely watched projects in European climate policy.“ We’ re only 0.5 percent into that club,” he begins, regarding the mega-project failure rate.“ We’ re absolutely determined to deliver on this.”
Established in 1853, Stockholm Exergi’ s core business has always been district heating and electricity, drawing on waste incineration and residuals from forestry and the paper industry to supply around 80 percent of Stockholm’ s district heating market. As forestry and paper waste would otherwise rot and release carbon back into the atmosphere, the company’ s existing plant is already carbon neutral and, today, it operates five power plants in Stockholm.
Beyond carbon capture
Stockholm Exergi’ s new facility- dubbed the‘ Energy Harbor’- will capture CO 2 directly from the plant’ s flue gas, ship it to Norway in partnership with Northern Lights, and inject it 2.6 kilometers beneath the seabed for permanent storage.“ Conventional carbon capture simply prevents emissions that would otherwise enter the atmosphere,” explains Egil.“ Useful, but not transformative. Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage goes further; because the biomass fuel is already carbon neutral, capturing and storing its emissions produces a net negative result. Research shows that BECCS- negative emissions or carbon removal- is needed to help stop global warming.”
This project matters enormously to European climate and net-zero strategy
Once operational, the energy harbor is expected to capture 800,000 tons of biogenic
CO 2 every year.“ This equates to more than the fossil emissions from all road traffic in Stockholm, and is comparable to the entire aviation sector in Sweden,” Egil points out.“ It will be, as far as we are aware, the largest facility of its kind in the world.” The physical scale matches the ambition: a building 500 meters from the existing power plant, with a footprint of 50 by 160 meters and standing 22 meters high, fed by components shipped in from across Europe, Asia, and South America. Next year’ s installation campaign will use the largest onshore crane in the world.
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