Hafslund is currently building a carbon capture facility at the waste incineration plant at Klemetsrud in Oslo. The carbon capture facility is one of Norway’s largest climate initiatives and is part of the Norwegian government’s Longship project. Hafslund’s carbon capture facility and CO2 terminal are scheduled to be operational in the third quarter of 2029. The facility will reduce Oslo’s fossil CO2 emissions by 20 percent by 2030.

The facility will be one of the first in the world to capture CO2 from waste incineration, and probably the first waste incineration facility to deliver CO2 for permanent storage. The project will provide valuable insights that can be transferred to other similar facilities in Europe.

Aims to reduce Oslo's fossil CO2 emissions by 20 percent

With a carbon capture facility in place at the waste incineration plant at Klemetsrud, Hafslund will capture up to 350,000 tonnes of CO2 annually, thereby reducing Oslo’s fossil CO2 emissions by as much as 20 percent. The captured CO2 will be transported to and permanently stored by Northern Lights , which is part of Norway’s Longship project .

“The project is absolutely crucial to achieving the emissions reduction target by 2030. At the same time, it provides experience and technology that can be used by several hundred similar facilities across Europe,” says Truls Jemtland, Head of Communications at Hafslund Celsio.

The world is drowning in waste

Every year, around 100 million tonnes of waste end up in landfills or dumps across Europe. If this waste were instead managed responsibly through reuse, waste sorting, recycling and waste incineration with energy recovery, effective flue gas treatment and carbon capture, Europe could reduce its CO2 emissions by as much as 90 million tonnes annually.

“By safely treating waste that would otherwise have ended up in landfill, greenhouse gas emissions are reduced by as much as 75 percent. Waste incineration is therefore an effective environmental measure and a responsible form of waste management. By capturing CO2 from waste incineration emissions, most greenhouse gas emissions are eliminated, and our operations will actually become climate positive,” says Jemtland.

Why carbon capture and storage at waste incineration plants?

It is estimated that more than two billion tonnes of waste are generated worldwide each year. By 2050, the amount of waste is expected to increase to 3.4 billion tonnes. The sheer volume of waste is a major problem, and another major concern is that at least 33 percent of global waste is not managed sustainably.

“By capturing carbon from waste incineration, Hafslund can develop one of the world’s first carbon capture facilities for waste incineration as part of a complete value chain. This will enable Oslo to achieve its ambitious climate targets, while allowing us to show cities across Europe how to manage non-recyclable waste efficiently while producing heat and electricity for their residents. In addition, we can help remove large volumes of CO2,” says Truls Jemtland, Head of Communications at Hafslund Celsio.

Hafslund’s waste-to-energy plant at Klemetsrud processes residual household waste and commercial waste. As part of Norway’s Longship carbon capture and storage project, the plant could become the world’s first waste-to-energy facility to remove significant amounts of CO2 from its emissions.

Why incinerate waste?

We all need to get better at buying less, using our belongings for longer, and sorting our waste more effectively. But no matter how good we become at reusing and sorting waste, there will always be a fraction of waste that has no next life. It may be too dirty or contaminated to recycle, contain hazardous substances that make it unsuitable for material recovery, or consist of materials that must be destroyed. This is residual waste that cannot and should not be reused or recycled. The best way to handle this residual waste is to incinerate it with effective flue gas treatment and use the energy generated in the process to produce electricity and district heating.

Carbon capture in Oslo will result in negative emissions

Approximately 50 percent of the waste processed at Hafslund’s waste incineration plant is of biogenic origin. This may include food scraps that have not been separated as food waste, as well as paper, cardboard and wood that are unsuitable for recycling or were not sorted out earlier in the value chain. When biogenic material decomposes naturally, the CO2 forms part of the natural carbon cycle. However, when it is incinerated with carbon capture, Hafslund will capture and store the CO2 from the emissions, thereby removing CO2 from the atmosphere. This is also known as carbon removal, or negative emissions, which the European Commission, the UN and the International Energy Agency all stress is crucial to achieving global climate targets.

Model scenarios show that limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius will require large amounts of “negative emissions”, achieved by removing CO2 from the atmosphere.

About Northern Lights

Northern Lights transports and permanently stores captured CO2 safely and securely. The company is part of Longship, the Norwegian government's carbon capture and storage project. The company is a joint venture between Equinor, Shell and TotalEnergies.

Northern Lights comprises a value chain in which captured CO2 is collected and transported to an intermediate storage facility in Øygarden, before being pumped through a pipeline into geological formations in the Aurora field in the North Sea.

Here, the CO2 will be stored 2,600 metres below the seabed. Northern Lights uses advanced technology to monitor the stored CO2.

In August 2025, the first CO2 captured in the Longship value chain was permanently stored by Northern Lights. In the first phase, the company has the capacity to permanently store 1.5 million tonnes of CO2 per year. The company has made the investment decision and is expanding its transport and storage capacity to at least 5 million tonnes of CO2 per year.

“This is not the first time Norway has stored CO2. Norwegian companies have been storing CO2 at Sleipner and Snøhvit since the mid-1990s. They are bringing the knowledge and expertise they have acquired over the past 30 years into the Northern Lights project,” explains Truls Jemtland.

“With the capacity expansion, Northern Lights will be able to transport and permanently store CO2 from the Longship participants, as well as from its current and future commercial partners. Norway could provide the storage solution for many of Europe’s major emission sources,” explains Truls Jemtland.

One of Oslo’s largest construction projects is taking shape at Klemetsrud

The carbon capture project has gone through several phases since it began in 2015. Between 2022 and 2024, extensive rock excavation and construction work was carried out on the site. Construction work and the building of the capture facility itself will begin in winter 2025/26. During 2026, the processing plant will take shape between the existing incineration plant and the E6, while technical equipment and support systems are installed.

Approval, commissioning and start-up will be completed during 2028, with final completion in the first half of 2029. The facility will be operational in the second half of 2029.

In January 2025, Aker Solution and SLB Capturi were awarded the contract to establish carbon capture at Hafslund's waste incineration plant.

Transport and CO2 terminal

The captured CO2 from Hafslund's waste-to-energy plant at Klemetsrud will be collected by Northern Lights at the Port of Oslo. The new carbon capture facility is located approximately 12 kilometres from the port, and this transport challenge will be addressed using electric vehicles. A CO2 terminal will be established at Kneppeskjær in the Port of Oslo, and the CO2 will be transported between the capture facility and the terminal in tank trailers pulled by electric tractor units. Transport will operate continuously, with the flexibility to avoid periods of heavy traffic.

Every four days, a purpose-built CO2 carrier operated by Northern Lights arrives to collect the captured CO2. The ship incorporates a range of measures to reduce emissions during transport. After approximately 24 hours at sea, the ship arrives at the Northern Lights terminal in Øygarden, where the CO2 is temporarily stored before being injected into a sandstone formation 2,600 metres beneath the seabed in the North Sea.