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Abstract: While the share of renewables has been growing rapidly since the 1990s, at present electricity generation in Germany is still based on coal and nuclear energy, with nuclear power and lignite covering almost the whole base load electricity generation, and hard coal serving as the main energy carrier for medium-load generation. However, both coal and nuclear energy are facing major challenges. The future of coal in Germany is uncertain against the background of strong climate policy regulations and issues of public acceptance. In line with current legislation, nuclear power is being phased out. In its strategy for CO2 emissions reduction, the German government has identified the carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies as one of the options. Major government papers highlight the importance of further research and development (R&D) in the field of CCS technologies. German industry supports R&D activities on CCS by participating in the work of public–private partnerships (PPP), e.g. the COORETEC initiative, the GEOTECHNOLOGIEN programme, as well as by implementing CCS demonstration projects. In view of the difficulties coal has been facing with regard to public acceptance in Germany, the public acceptance of CCS technologies is recognised as an important precondition for their large-scale deployment. Thus, research on public acceptance of CCS is one of the priorities accompanying R&D on these technologies. Besides the strategy of fostering national R&D activities on CCS, Germany is actively participating in international networks and organisations dealing with the CCS issues. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Considering the traditional coal-based energy infrastructure in the German state North Rhine-Westphalia the question arises how to face the needs of embanking climate change. To reduce greenhouse gas intensive electricity generation in the Ruhr area, the introduction of carbon capture and storage (CCS) is an option of particular relevance. The paper investigates and discusses possibilities of setting up a CCS infrastructure in NRW. It shall clarify whether, and possibly how, highly efficient conventional fossil fired power plants could be refitted with CO2 capture to flexibly react to potentially changing climate policy conditions and to keep up with the market. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper presents the results of a collaborative project on public acceptance of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) in Germany, commissioned by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi). The project “Socio-economic Research on Acceptance of CCS” (April 2006 to March 2008) analyzed various aspects of public acceptance of CCS mainly in the national context of Germany. It was the first project to handle this subject matter. Public acceptance is one of the crucial factors for the implementation of CCS in the future. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: To monitor the migration of the injected CO2 in the Ketzin project (Germany) a permanently buried multi-component seismic array has been installed in August 2009. Since then the array has been continuously recording passive seismic data. Additionally an active seismic survey resulting in a 230 m long 2D seismic line roughly passing over the monitoring well Ktzi 202/2007 has been acquired in November 2009. This relatively small set-up is meant as a pre-screening study to demonstrate the added value of the buried sensors before installing a larger 3D array. A first analysis of the active seismic data shows, that the use of an array of buried receivers results in (time-lapse) seismic data that offer a superior S/N ratio suppressing both ambient noise and surface related coherent noise. This setup is expected to lead to an increased repeatability. This paper describes the experimental set-up and first results of the acquired baseline data using the buried sensors. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: CCS is discussed in a broad sense throughout Europe. In this paper a cautious, conservative estimate of CO2 storage capacity for Germany and its neighboring countries where CO2 emissions from Germany could possibly be stored (Netherlands, France, Denmark, Norway, UK and Poland) is presented. Such a lower limit calculation is necessary for orientation purposes for potential investors and political decision-makers. Conservative CO2 sequestration capacity in deep saline aquifers for Germany is derived by the volumetric approach where parameters such as efficiency factor, CO2 density, porosity of the geological formation are of interest. It is assumed that every geological system is closed and thus an efficiency factor of 0.1 per cent (based on maximum pressure increase and total compressibility) for saline aquifers is applied. The capacity of German depleted oil and gas fields is based on cumulative recovery data and a sweep efficiency of 75 percent. The storage capacity in the other considered countries, adjacent to Germany, are based on a critical review and adjustment of the results of the European reports JOULE II, GESTCO and GeoCapacity. The conservative capacities for all countries together amount to 49 Gt CO2, from which Norway and the UK provide 36 Gt, all offshore in the North Sea. Compared to the emissions from large point sources in these countries during 40 years (47.6 Gt of CO2), a virtual balance is achieved. This can only be reached, if a large scale CO2 pipeline system is installed to connect these countries, especially Germany, to the large sinks in the North Sea. If additional restrictions like source-sink matching, acceptance issues and injection rates constraints are taken into account, the available storage space gets increasingly scarce. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]