The emerging European carbon capture and storage industry is celebrating milestones as leading projects take final investment decisions and prepare to start operations in 2025.

Developers warn of sector uncertainty, however, with frequent calls for greater policy clarity and funding support.

Operations will start in 2025 at leading CO2 storage sites at Norway’s 1.5 million mt/year Northern Lights facility and possibly Denmark’s 400,000 mt/year Greensand store, marking a watershed moment in Europe’s energy transition as the technology is deployed commercially at scale for the first time.

A number of others have reached financial close. Construction of the 2.5 million mt/year Porthos facility in the Netherlands is already underway, and the 4 million mt/year Northern Endurance Partnership’s phase one CO2 store in the UK North Sea took FID in December, with construction to start in 2025.