Understanding Societal Requirements of CCS Projects: Application of the Societal Embeddedness Level Assessment Methodology in Four National Case Studies

Abstract

The DigiMon project aims to develop and demonstrate an affordable, flexible, societally embedded, and smart digital monitoring early warning system for any subsurface CO2 storage field. The societal embeddedness level (SEL) assessment is a novel methodology which provides insight into the societal requirements for technological innovation to be deployed. The SEL assessment framework was applied in four case studies, concerning CCS development in Norway, the Netherlands, Greece, and Germany. The resulting societal embeddedness levels of CCS, on a scale of 1–4, were SEL 3 in Norway with considerable progress towards level 4, followed by the Netherlands with SEL 2 with several initiatives towards offshore demonstration projects, and then by Greece and Germany with SEL 1. The outcomes of the SEL assessments show which societal requirements have been met in current CCS developments and which ones should be improved for CCS deployment. They also show that monitoring currently is a regulatory requirement as part of permitting procedures, while it may alleviate community concerns on safety, provided that it has certain attributes. The insights from the four national case studies are further used in the DigiMon project to develop the innovative societal embedded DigiMon monitoring system.

What do stakeholders expect from an integrated system for informing social partners and decision makers in digital monitoring of CO2 storage

“…• D3.1 -Guideline for applying the (novel) SEL (Society Embeddedness Level) concept on CCS [12] • D3.2 -Report on the SEL of 4 countries: Norway, Τhe Netherlands, Germany and Greece [13], [14] • D3.3 -State-of-the-art report on the SEL of three local case studies in Norway, Germany and…”

Differences in Direct Geothermal Energy Utilization for Heating and Cooling in Central and Northern European Countries

“…The four dimensions considered are the environment, stakeholder involvement, policy and regulations, and market and financial resources. Recently, the method was used to assess and compare the SEL of carbon storage projects in four different European countries [33]. In the present work, the method is applied to geothermal energy as a source for heating in the five countries participating in the User4GeoEnergy project.…”

“…The method identifies a set of milestones corresponding to each dimension and level [33]. For instance, one of six milestones for SEL 1 in the dimension Environment is the "Identification of natural environment of the innovation concept", and one of four milestones for SEL 4 of the same dimension is "Harm to the natural environment is as low as possible within the limits of the project/technology".…”

Integrated Carbon Capture and Utilization in the Cement Industry: A Comparative Study

“…A second large barrier to the full-scale deployment of CCS is the availability of the infrastructure necessary for CO 2 transport and storage. Although many technological aspects regarding transport and storage have a high technology readiness level, their deployment requires political will and public acceptance . At the time of writing, the availability of CO 2 transport capacity and operational storage capacity is low (although developments are accelerating) compared to the CO 2 emissions generated by the cement industry, hampering the investments for the deployment of CO 2 capture technology.…”