Authorities monitoring European competition announced that they will allow the Norwegian government to provide huge financial support for new technology to capture and store carbon emissions. Plans are afoot to develop a test centre at the StatoilHydro gas plant along Norway’s west coast.
The state will provide 80 per cent of the financing for the project, with StatoilHydro covering the remaining 20 per cent of construction costs. This is in line with Norway’s carbon dioxide National Allocation Plan (NAP), which has the goal of keeping its emissions in compliance with the Kyoto Agreement.
Norway is the third country to have both its credit limit and allocations approved by Brussels. The European Free Trade Association’s monitoring branch, the ESA, had originally voiced concerns over competition violations. But these worries have been erased by a recent announcement from the ESA.
The test centre “has a clear environmental goal. It’s important to develop new technology that can reduce emissions,” ESA President Per Sanderud said at a Brussels press conference.
Norwegian officials were pleased to hear the news. The decision will allow the government to move forward with plans to complete the test centre by 2011. It is hoped that the facility will be able to capture and store carbon emissions at full capacity by 2014.