Stockholm Buys 750,000 Tonnes of Carbon Removal from Local BECCS Plant

The City of Stockholm has signed a 15-year agreement to purchase 750,000 tonnes of permanent carbon removal from Stockholm Exergi's bioenergy with carbon capture and storage facility, making Stockholm the fifth largest buyer of permanent carbon removals globally. The deal involves 50,000 tonnes annually from a plant at Värtan that is expected to begin operations around 2028.

Stockholm Exergi's BECCS facility at Värtan combines a bioenergy-based combined heat and power plant fuelled by forestry, sawmill and pulp and paper residues with a carbon capture and storage process that captures CO2 from flue gases, cools and compresses it into liquid form, and transports it for permanent mineralisation in sedimentary bedrock beneath the North Sea floor. The facility is designed to capture and store up to 800,000 tonnes of CO2 annually, and construction is already under way. Stockholm Exergi is jointly owned by the City of Stockholm and Ankhiale, a consortium of leading European pension funds.

The deal adds to Stockholm Exergi's landmark 2025 agreement with Microsoft covering more than five million tonnes of permanent carbon removals, described at the time as the world's largest such agreement. The City of Stockholm's direct purchase is significant because it signals that municipalities—not just technology companies—are emerging as buyers of high-quality permanent carbon removals, a development that could broaden the buyer base for the nascent carbon removal industry. Stockholm aims to become territorially climate positive by 2030 and fossil fuel-free by 2040, requiring that removals exceed remaining territorial emissions.

The city has stated that its investment in carbon removals is intended to address hard-to-abate emissions such as those from construction materials and wastewater treatment, which cannot be easily eliminated through direct mitigation. This represents a policy model that other municipalities pursuing climate positivity targets may replicate, particularly in markets where local BECCS or DAC infrastructure is being developed. The deal could also accelerate financing and permitting timelines for Stockholm Exergi's BECCS facility by providing guaranteed demand for a portion of its annual carbon removal capacity.

Key figure — 800,000 tonnes annual CO2 capture and storage capacity of the Stockholm Exergi BECCS facility