Geological storage pilots

Projects should enable, under ""real life"" conditions, the development and demonstration of best practices for the entire storage cycle, from site characterisation to operation, including key components of CO2 transport infrastructure, monitoring and mitigation/remediation of leakage, and including education and training.

Focus should be on progressing technologies that already reached TRL 4-5 to TRL 6 (please see part G of the General Annexes).

Knowledge sharing with a wide range of stakeholders, as well as early and sustained engagement and involvement of concerned communities through targeted information and dissemination activities, is essential.

In this particular context, new types of interactions between societal actors are encouraged. Projects should identify the key drivers and influencers of public attitude, identify distorted perceptions and develop sound arguments to address them.

International cooperation is encouraged, in particular activities between EU project(s) under this topic and non-EU projects (e.g. from Australia and/or North-America).

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU in the range of EUR 9 to 16 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

The EU is committed to an overall reduction of greenhouse gas emissions of at least 80% by 2050. Nonetheless, fossil fuels will continue to be used in Europe's power generation as well as in other industrial processes for decades to come. Therefore, the 2050 target can only be achieved if the emissions from fossil fuel combustion in the power generation sector and energy intensive industries are eliminated from the system. This will require the application of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS). A key challenge in the short-term for driving CCS to deployment is the development of geological storage.

Demonstration of safe and environmentally sound CO2 storage will play a key role in optimising the safe operation of storage sites and in fine-tuning regulatory issues, in promoting confidence in CO2 storage and building public awareness of CCS. Pilot-scale demonstration projects should contribute to accelerating the development and deployment of CCS through an enhanced and effective cooperation in research and innovation between various stakeholders and Member States/Associated Countries, thereby allowing a more efficient use and stronger leverage of financial resources and promoting knowledge sharing.