CLIMIT R&D: support for three social science projects

One group, for example, is examining how exporting CO₂ to other countries impacts support for CCS and which factors impact public perceptions of CCS projects during construction/planning.

How society responds to CCS

There are three different projects, but what they all have in common is that they look at how society responds to CCS. What is needed in Europe for acceptance of CCS and the market adaptations needed for the roll out of production of blue hydrogen. “We look forward to presenting the results from these three exciting projects,” says Åse Slagtern, special advisor at CLIMIT R&D who promises that we will hear more from these projects in the future.

The three projects

Developing value chains for CO₂ storage and blue hydrogen in Europe

• The Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research
• NOK 5.2 million

In order to develop markets for carbon storage and hydrogen, an age-old problem needs to solved: A blue hydrogen producer is not willing to invest in facilities before it has good reason to believe that a carbon storage site is under development. At the same time, an operator considering building a carbon storage facility is unlikely to want to invest before it is reasonably sure that it will get customers.

This project will analyse the development of value chains for carbon storage and hydrogen in Europe. The most important aspects of the project are:

• Assessing the demand for carbon storage, particularly the social acceptance and economic factors for demand for storage services
• Studying the competition between carbon storage in Europe when important factors such as economies of scale and industrial learning are taken into consideration
• Developing business models that ensure an efficient distribution of risk between private and public stakeholders
• Studying the competition between blue and green hydrogen and the competition between conventional energy, CCS-based energy, and renewable energy, and discussing the design of instruments to ensure the socioeconomically favourable development of a value chain for carbon storage and hydrogen
• Assessing how the Norwegian Northern Lights project can change market structures.

As a part of the project one PhD and one postdoctoral will be recruited.

Does the nationality of CO₂ matter? Public perceptions of a Northern European market for CO₂ storage (CCSMARKET)

• NORCE Norwegian Research Centre AS
• NOK 5.2 million

CCSMARKET analyses what people in Norway, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom think about carbon capture and storage (CCS).  A lack of public support, particularly relating to land-based underground storage, has previously been a barrier to establishing CCS in Europe.

Through this project, they hope to discover how exporting CO₂ to other countries impacts support for CCS in the exporting nations and how this affects support for CCS in importing nations. NORCE will use comparative surveys to investigate this. The purpose of this is to identify and quantify factors that impact public perceptions of CCS projects during construction/planning. The aim is to improve understanding of mechanisms that impact attitudes towards CCS.

Socio-technical drivers, opportunities, and challenges for large-scale CCUS

• SINTEF AS
• NOK 10, 7 million

This project is based on the multidisciplinary sustainability transitions research field and hopes to understand the innovation processes around the establishment of CCS. The project will analyse innovation linked to the entire value chain for CCS and CCU (carbon capture and utilisation) and will look at how strategies and business models for key industrial operators and regional industrial transformation processes contribute to the development of CCUS and vice versa.

CaptureX focuses on the importance of legitimisation processes (including acceptance) and policy developments for the development and spread of CCUS.

The CaptureX project is being carried out by a leading group of social science energy researchers in Norway (SINTEF Digital, NTNU KULT, UiO TIK) and Sweden (Chalmers) and involves CCS experts from SINTEF Energy.

As a part of the project two postdoctorals will be recruited.