Scaling Europe's carbon storage capacity
A pathway for competitive decarbonisation
Europe's energy-intensive industries employ close to 8 million people and supply the cement, steel and chemicals the rest of the economy is built on - but they cannot decarbonise through electrification alone. (European Comission, 2021). Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is essential for these industries to decarbonise while staying competitive and keeping jobs and investments in Europe.
Greensand proves a complete CCS value chain can operate at full scale in the EU. With operations officially opening on 18 September 2026, Greensand is the first CO₂ storage site in the European Union to reach full-scale operation, defined as an operational storage project injecting more than 100,000 tonnes of CO₂ per year. This assessment is supported by the Global CCS Institute’s Global Status of CCS report and project database, as well as the European Commission’s work on EU CO₂ storage capacity. Greensand has moved beyond demonstration scale and is now operating as a full-scale CO₂ storage facility within the EU.
The question is no longer whether CO₂ can be transported and stored - it is whether Europe will create the regulatory, infrastructure and investment conditions to deploy it at scale.
Greensand Future aims to safely capture and permanently store up to 400,000 tons of CO
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Storing CO₂ in the North Sea
In its first commercial phase, Greensand transports and permanently stores up to approximately 400,000 tonnes of CO₂ per year. Over time, and subject to market development, customer demand, infrastructure expansion and regulatory conditions, capacity could increase to between 4 and 8 million tonnes of CO₂ annually, subject to the availability of captured CO₂ from industrial emitters.
Greensand is a full industrial CCS value chain built on a scalable platform, allowing for the gradual expansion of storage capacity as CO
A big moment for Europe's green transition
In 2023, Greensand completed its pilot project, demonstrating for the first time the feasibility of cross-border, offshore CO
The storage was officially celebrated on March 8th 2023 at the exclusive First Carbon Storage event in Esbjerg, Denmark. Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission said:
This is a big moment for Europe’s green transition, and for our clean tech industry. The first ever full value chain for carbon capture and storage in Europe. You are showing that it can be done [...] This is what Europe’s competitive sustainability is all about.
The pilot proved the concept. On 18 September 2026, Greensand moves from pilot to full-scale operation.
