RWE believes that its Beccus project will play a crucial role in achieving a climate-neutral energy system in The Netherlands through emission reduction and carbon removal.
Creating a sustainable energy system is at the heart of RWE’s business strategy, which is why the company aims to reduce its emissions in line with the 1.5 degree reduction pathway. Moreover, RWE aims to phase out coal by 2030 and be climate neutral by 2040. This fits well with the Dutch government’s climate targets of reducing emissions by 55-60% by 2030 (in line with the Paris Agreement) and then by 95% by 2050. These goals are not achievable without removing CO₂ from the atmosphere, according to the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
The Beccus (Bio-Energy Carbon Capture Utilisation & Storage) project aims to re-use and store CO₂ of sustainable, biogenic origin at RWE’s Amer and Eemshaven power plants. This will result in negative CO2 emissions of 11-14 million tonnes as of 2030. This amounts to 7-9% of the total annual CO₂ emissions in The Netherlands. However, to meet climate targets, the government still has to fill a gap of between 12 and 36 megatons of CO₂, according to PBL. RWE’s deployment makes a major contribution here.
On Tuesday 20 June, RWE presented the Beccus project in The Hague to government and industry, among others. Subject to technical and economic feasibility, the plan is to produce negative emissions and green CO₂ from 2030 onwards.
Roger Miesen, CEO of RWE Generation SE: “Driven by our mission ‘Our energy for a sustainable life’, RWE wants to become a company that removes CO₂ from the atmosphere at an accelerated rate in the Netherlands as well. In doing so, we are clearly breaking with the past, when gas and coal were the predominant fuels. It is our ambition to have both the Amer power station and the Eemshaven power station act as links in a completely closed CO₂ cycle.“
According to RWE’s vision, the production of negative emissions and biogenic CO₂ co-exists with large-scale expansion of wind and solar power, battery storage and hydrogen production (both onshore and offshore). This is where RWE’s power plants play a role. RWE has, on the one hand, a plan to make its gas-fired power plants suitable for green or blue hydrogen and, on the other hand, in order not to become dependent on one technology, the plan for the Beccus project.
Besides producing electricity, the power plants with BECCUS will provide the added benefits of negative emissions and sustainable, biogenic CO₂ for making biofuels and plastics, replacing fossil production. Potential sites for storage of the CO₂ include gas fields in the North Sea and off the coast of Norway, where such projects are underway.
Image: Roger Miesen, CEO of RWE Generation SE, presents the BECCUS project (courtesy of RWE)
