PilotSTRATEGY project logo.
© PilotSTRATEGY
The European project PilotSTRATEGY, funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 programme, was officially launched in May 2021. It aims to improve knowledge of the ability of deep saline aquifers to store CO2 in five industrial regions in southern and eastern Europe, corresponding to carbon dioxide emission centres.
Building CO2 storage pilots in three industrial regions
The project will also propose the construction of CO2 storage pilots in three regions of southern Europe - the Paris Basin (France), the Lusitanian Basin (Portugal) and the Ebro Basin (Spain). New seismic and geological data will be acquired to characterise each area in detail, followed by feasibility studies and pre-project documents. Consultation with local, regional and national stakeholders will be initiated at the start of the project on the basis of regional committees. They will be invited to propose recommendations for the design and implementation of each of the pilot projects.
In the other two Eastern European regions, Western Macedonia (Greece) and Upper Silesia (Poland), PilotSTRATEGY will focus on improving the maturity of the understanding of deep saline aquifer storage resources and their confidence level, based on new existing data, reprocessing of old data and new dynamic simulation studies. The aim is to enable these regions to start planning the development of their storage resources.
In the five regions studied, discussions with communities and decision-makers will support the effort to educate and raise awareness of geological storage of CO2.
PilotSTRATEGY: 3D seismic acquisition campaign
Characterisation of geological resources for CO2 storage is a transdisciplinary research area requiring technical, economic, policy and social sciences. Our team has key institutions which will support, guide and lead our regional and national activities across all disciplines. One of the expected outcomes of PilotSTRATEGY is to identify storage sites where the dialogue with regional and national stakeholders and with citizens is positive. This can then support the Final Investment Decision (FID) for a CCUS pilot in their region.
Continuation of the STRATEGY CCUS project coordinated by BRGM
With a total duration of 5 years, PilotSTRATEGY is a follow-up to the STRATEGY CCUS project launched in May 2019 by the same BRGM coordination team. Fifteen other partners from 7 countries form the transdisciplinary team that will contribute to its implementation. The total budget is 10 million euros, 42% of which is allocated to the French partners - BRGM, IFP Energies nouvelles, Pôle Avenia (associating three of its members: Vermilion, Arverne, S3 for 3D seismic acquisition), Geostock, as well as SYMLOG for human and social sciences.
This project is part of the European Commission's research and innovation policy on Carbon Capture, Storage and Recovery (CCSR) technology for a clean and sustainable energy transition, in order to contribute to achieving the objectives of the Paris Climate Agreement.
PilotSTRATEGY is one of the first steps to develop further the socio-economic and environmental-based scenarios being elaborated in STRATEGY CCUS. After making an inventory of the technical aspects involved in development of the CCUS chain, we identified storage capacity estimates as the most uncertain factor for long-term scenario implementation. Indeed, there is an urgent need to characterise and better estimate geological storage resources in Europe!
Partners
- France: BRGM, IFP Energies nouvelles (IFPEN), Pole AVENIA, Geostock, Institut Symlog
- Spain: IGME, CIEMAT, Repsol
- Portugal: University of Evora, Instituto de Ciências Sociais (Universidade de Lisboa), Galp
- Greece: CERTH, Hellenic Hydrocarbon Resources Management (HHRM)
- UK: University of Edinburgh and Scottish Carbon Capture & Storage
- Poland: GIG (Central Mining Institute)
- Germany: Fraunhofer ISI
Map of the regions studied and the PilotSTRATEGY project partners.
© PilotSTRATEGY
