Aker Carbon Capture

Regulatory Filings • Mar 10, 2021

Aker Carbon Capture, Ørsted and Microsoft commit to explore development of carbon capture

Aker Carbon Capture, Ørsted and Microsoft commit to explore development of carbon capture

New collaboration to explore the technological, regulatory, and commercial

possibilities of developing carbon capture at biomass-fired heat and power

plants.

Oslo/Copenhagen, March 10, 2021 - Aker Carbon Capture, Ørsted and Microsoft have

signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to explore ways to support the

development of carbon capture and storage at biomass-fired heat and power plants

in Denmark.

Carbon capture and storage is widely accepted as an important instrument to meet

both the Danish climate targets of 70 % carbon reduction by 2030 and to meet the

Paris Agreement's goal to limit global temperature increases to 1.5 degrees

Celsius.

By capturing the carbon emitted by biomass-fired heat and power plants and

storing it underground, it is possible to not only reduce, but also remove

carbon from the atmosphere, as carbon from sustainable biomass is part of a

natural biogenic carbon cycle.

The three companies will cooperate to address technological, regulatory, and

commercial challenges and opportunities for creating negative emissions by

capturing and storing carbon emitted by biomass-fired heat and power stations,

with each party playing crucial and distinct commercial roles.

Under the terms of the memorandum of understanding, the parties agreed to:

· Explore the possibility to jointly develop a negative emission project at

one of Ørsted's biomass plants in Denmark, potentially using Northern Lights

where Microsoft is an existing partner

· Explore a technology collaboration to integrate Microsoft's digital

expertise into a biogenic carbon capture project with Aker Carbon Capture's

health, safety & environment (HSE) friendly capture technology

· Explore ways for Microsoft, Aker Carbon Capture, and Ørsted to jointly

accelerate the development of a biogenic carbon capture project

· Explore and establish advocacy of policies that help accelerate the negative

emission frameworks in European countries

Through the successful completion of activities within these four areas, it is

the ultimate vision of the parties to drive forward the process of facilitating

negative emissions and reaching actual operation of a commercial and technical

setup creating substantial negative emissions.

Today, Ørsted has six biomass-fired units and provides around one quarter of

Denmark's district heating. The biomass used as fuel at Ørsted's heat and power

plants comes from sustainably managed production forests and is surplus wood,

such as sawdust from sawmills or residues from trimming or crooked trees. This

wood is of a too low quality to be used for construction or furniture. The

surplus wood can either be left to rot or be burned in the forest, or it can be

used for example to replace gas and coal in energy production. All the surplus

wood that Ørsted sources comes from growth forests which means that the carbon

emitted when the surplus wood is converted to energy is recaptured by the forest

within the span of a few years.

Even though Ørsted foresees that technologies based on renewable power will

replace a substantial part of bioenergy in the district heating towards 2040, it

expects carbon capture at a number of biomass-fired units to play an important

role in the energy transition.

"Carbon capture will most likely be an important part of the green transition,

and we see opportunities for capturing the carbon at some of our biomass-fired

heat and power plants and either store it underground in order to achieve

negative emissions or use the carbon for the production of green fuels in Power

-to-X facilities. Therefore, we're currently exploring the regulatory,

technical, and economic possibilities of carbon capture at our facilities," says

Ole Thomsen, Senior Vice President at Ørsted.

Microsoft globally participates in several initiatives to drive the reduction of

carbon emissions, and Microsoft has been carbon neutral across the world since

2012 and commits to being carbon negative by 2030. Their goal is to promote

sustainable development and low-carbon business practices globally through

sustainable business practices and cloud-enabled technologies.

"Partnership across sectors and digital innovation are key in the fight against

climate change. The plan to achieve the Danish ambition of 70 % carbon reduction

by 2030 relies in part on carbon capture and storage at scale, and we're excited

to support this alongside Ørsted and Aker Carbon Capture," explains Nana Bule,

General Manager, Microsoft Denmark and Iceland.

"We're very excited to leverage and build on top of our experience from other

projects and to enter this new partnership between Aker Carbon Capture, Ørsted,

and Microsoft. In Microsoft, we take our ambitious sustainability goals

seriously, and this MoU is yet another great initiative that comes out of the

Nordic region. We all need to do more and move faster if we are to succeed on

reaching our sustainable goals," says Kimberly Lein-Mathisen, General Manager,

Microsoft Norway.

"The relationship with Ørsted and Microsoft opens for a potential first-of-a

-kind, accelerated biogenic CCS project," says Valborg Lundegaard, Chief

Executive Officer of Aker Carbon Capture.

Aker Carbon Capture has developed carbon capture technologies and delivered

projects for more than ten years and today has the solutions to support

customers across several industries, establishing sustainable business models

for the future. "Focusing on HSE-friendly capture, Aker Carbon Capture will

bring its leading capture technology to accelerate the delivery of a full

biogenic CCS value chain," says Lundegaard.

Media Relations:

Ivar Simensen, mob: +47 464 02 317, email: ivar.simensen@akerhorizons.com

Aker Carbon Capture is a pure play, carbon-capture company with solutions,

services and technologies serving a range of industries with carbon emissions,

including the cement, bio and waste-to-energy, gas-to-power and blue hydrogen

segments. Aker Carbon Capture's proprietary, carbon-capture technology offers a

unique, environmentally friendly solution for removing CO\2\ emissions. The

company is majority-owned by Aker Horizons (AKH), an investment company

dedicated to creating value and reducing emissions from renewable energy and

decarbonization technologies.

Visit akercarboncapture.com (https://www.akercarboncapture.com/) and connect

with us on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/aker-carbon

-capture), Facebook (https://facebook.com/akercarboncapture),

Twitter (https://twitter.com/akercarbon),

Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/akercarboncapture/) and

YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqE71jAZxmM-CNhfUQq86kQ).This press

release may include forward-looking information or statements and is subject to

our disclaimer, see akercarboncapture.com (https://www.akercarboncapture.com/)

This information is considered to be inside information pursuant to the EU

Market Abuse Regulation, and is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant

to Section 5-12 the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.

This stock exchange announcement was published by Katja Aanestad, Marketing

Communications, Aker Carbon Capture on March 10, 2021 at CET 09:00.