Representatives from the US. and Norway announced today that the U.S. will lead the International Test Center Network (ITCN), a global consortium of facilities conducting research and development (R&D) on carbon capture technologies.  

The Department of Energy's (DOE) Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy, Christopher Smith, and director of Norway’s Technology Centre Mongstad, Roy Vardheim, made the announcement during a ceremony in Houston, Texas.

The ITCN was formed by the National Carbon Capture Center (NCCC) in Wilsonville, Alabama and the Technology Centre Mongstad in Mongstad, Norway to facilitate knowledge transfer from carbon capture test facilities around the world.  U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz and Norway’s Minister of Petroleum and Energy Tord Lien announced their nations' commitment to the network during the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum Ministerial meeting in November 2013.  

The ITCN also includes facilities in Australia, Canada, Germany and the United Kingdom.  The NCCC, which is sponsored by the DOE and managed by Atlanta-based Southern Company, provides test facilities for the network in the U.S, and will lead the network’s activities for the next two years with DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy.  The ITCN hopes to expand its membership over the next two years.

Since its inception, network members have shared lessons learned from a broad base of carbon capture R&D – lessons that are paving the way for commercial deployment of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from energy systems and industrial operations.  

CCS will be increasingly important as nations move to implement the agreements reached at the recent climate summit in Paris.

“In December, 190 countries made a historic pledge to take action against climate change.  And 20 countries committed to doubling their clean energy R&D,” said Assistant Secretary Smith.  “The International Test Center Network bolsters that global commitment, and moves us closer to commercially deploying critical CCS technologies.”

The U.S., represented by the Office of Fossil Energy, takes over the two-year leadership of the ITCN from Norway, which has chaired the network since 2013.