Germany opens door to carbon capture to meet climate targets in 2030s

The German government has published a carbon capture and storage framework and draft law with a focus on supporting hard to abate sectors once the technology is widely available in the 2030s, the energy ministry said Feb. 26.

A carbon management strategy and draft carbon storage law (KSpG) set out a legal basis for future CO2 pipeline and carbon exports mainly to North Sea partners like Norway or Denmark.

"Achieving our climate targets without CCS is impossible," energy minister Robert Habeck said.

Government support would be via carbon contracts for difference, Habeck said at a press conference, but not be included in a first phase of carbon CFDs recently approved by the European Commission under state aid regulation.

Flagship cement projects

There were no plans to subsidize CCS in the power sector with coal plant explicitly excluded from accessing future CO2 pipelines, Habeck added.

Gas-fired plant would be excluded from CSS subsidies that will be targeted at cement, lime and other sectors difficult to decarbonize with renewables or clean hydrogen.

Next to Habeck at the strategy launch was Heidelberg Materials' CEO Dominik von Achten.

The company is currently completing the world's first industrial-scale cements works carbon capture plant in Breivik, Norway, with capacity to capture 400,000 mtCO2/yr.

The viability of CCS depended on EU carbon allowance price trends, Achten said.

Platts, a unit of S&P Global Commodity Insights, last assessed EU carbon allowances (nearest December) at Eur52.36/mt compared to record-highs above Eur100/mt in Feb. 2023.

Heidelberg Materials plans to invest Eur1.5 billion in CCUS projects until 2030.

In Germany, Heidelberg's GeZero project at Geseke is to capture 700,000 mtCO2/yr from 2029. It was awarded Eur191 million support in December 2023 from the EU Innovation Fund.

Negative emissions

For CCS in the power generation sector, the minister saw only a limited use case with renewables and hydrogen seen as the "superior way" to reduce emissions noting methane and other carbon emissions along the gas supply chain.

For coal, the strategy and draft law are set to exclude access to future CO2 pipelines, while there will be no government support for CCS capturing fossil fueled power generation emissions.

Ottmar Edenhofer, director of the Potsdam Institute for climate research, noted some 50 million mtCO2e/year that may require CCS in Germany from 2040, he said at the press conference.

In addition, the draft law would also open future German CO2 storage sites especially in the German North Sea and allow for CO2 exports with Germany set to join the London Protocol.

Another aspect of the carbon management strategy was negative emissions from direct air capture (DACCS) to biomass energy (BECCS) and natural carbon removal with a separate strategy due soon.