“It seems like we are all in primary school,” says Remco de Boer in his StudioEnergy podcast interview with Public Affairs Manager of the Porthos CCS project Mark Driessen.
De Boer alludes to the opposition many projects are facing in the Netherlands when it comes to development, be it fossil or renewable. To this list can now be added the Dutch flagship Carbon Capture and Storage project Porthos, in which EBN, Gasunie and Rotterdam harbour are teaming up to facilitate carbon storage in a depleted offshore gas field.
Even though all environmental permits have now been awarded, the fate of the project now rests in court due to a lawsuit filed by Johan Vollebroek from MOB Netherlands against the State. He claims that the release of nitrogen during the construction work – which is mainly offshore – is against regulations.
Nitrogen has heavily featured in Dutch news in recent years due the relatively high levels of deposition across the country, causing an overload of nutrients in ecosystems. Even though nitrogen deposition has fallen for many years, deposition still exceeds the critical loads for sustaining good ecological quality. It is for that reason that many large scale construction projects are facing challenges, as well as the agricultural sector.
However, as Mark Driessen explains in the interview with Remco de Boer, de project was exempted from the recently imposed nitrogen regulations as the project will only face release of nitrogen during construction.
In that sense, the project that can potentially store 37 million tonnes of CO2 is now being weighed up against the release of 160 tonnes of nitrogen. If the judge will decide in favour of MOB, CCS projects in the Netherlands will be facing an important hurdle, thereby putting more pressure on the road to net zero.
HENK KOMBRINK
