Strategic planning of regions and territories in Europe for low carbon energy and industry through CCUS: the STRATEGY CCUS project

STRATEGY CCUS is a three-year project (2019-2022) funded by the H2020 research and innovation framework of the European Commission. It comprises 17 partners and is coordinated by BRGM (France). STRATEGY CCUS aims to provide realistic strategic plans from 2025 to 2050 for deploying carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) in Southern and Eastern Europe, from a local to a European scale. Eight promising regions, within seven countries are being studied. Plans and roadmaps for these regions will be developed based on economic and environmental drivers, technical potential and social acceptance. The deployment of operational CCUS clusters starts by an appraisal at local and regional level. Available data for each promising region was mapped to indicate the technical potential of CCUS development in each region. Relevant groups of stakeholders were identified and invited to form Regional Stakeholder Committees within each promising region. These committees are working with project partners to consider regional factors and concerns as well as to elaborate scenarios of CCUS deployment in their respective regions to ensure early local participation. In the 3 most promising regions for the deployment of CCUS, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Multiregional Input Output (MRIO) analysis and Techno-Economic Assessment (TEA) designs will provide decision-support for the sustainable development of CCUS. Sound insights and a comprehensive diagnosis of the potential local business models associated with the different CCUS options will be provided for each region, as well as estimates for the sensitivity of the business model on storage capacity and injectivity data. CCUS roadmaps from 2025 to 2050 for each of the promising regions, with optional connections to existing CO2 infrastructure in the North Sea, will be elaborated. Scenarios will be based on the available relevant data and carried out in close exchange with the local stakeholders via the Regional Stakeholder Committees and the Industrial Club. Economic evaluation of each scenario will provide the main Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) such as cumulated CAPEX/OPEX required for each scenario, the cost breakdown per CCUS stakeholder, or for example the global costs expressed in €/t CO2 avoided per scenario. Lastly, an economic impact assessment will be performed at national and European levels in terms of volumes of quotas avoided for industries included in the European Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS) with the CCUS scenarios and in terms of economic impact on the EU ETS carbon price. Exploitation and dissemination of the project's results and findings engage with relevant end-users (industry and policy makers, local authorities), in order to pave the way for the operational implementation of CCUS clusters. The project is providing targeted information to multiple audiences (including the media and the public) and favoring dialogue, with a public policy perspective. The systematic approach followed by STRATEGY CCUS will facilitate the appraisal of new other promising regions and the creation of connection among them for the deployment of CCUS Europe-wide.