The Northern Lights consortium, led by Equinor, Shell, and TotalEnergies, has completed the first commercial CO2 injection into a geological reservoir off Norway's coast. The project captures liquefied CO2 from industrial sources like cement plants, transports it by ship, and stores it permanently 1.6 miles under the seabed. This marks a milestone for carbon capture and storage (CCS) as a climate tool for hard to decarbonize sectors like cement and steel. Northern Lights currently has capacity to store 1.7 million tons of CO2 per year, with plans to expand to 5.5 million tons by 2030. The project has signed three commercial contracts in Europe so far. Critics argue CCS is expensive and lets fossil fuel companies off the hook, but supporters see it as necessary for industries that cannot easily switch to renewables. The first injection came from a Heidelberg Materials cement plant in Norway.
