Italy is focusing on efforts to export captured CO2 quantities for storage in Greece starting early next decade.

A joint carbon capture and storage (CCS) project involving Greece, Italy and France, also open to the participation of other countries in the future, was presented earlier this year in the neighboring country’s revised National Energy and Climate Plan, as part of the TEN-E regulation, offering guidelines for cross-border energy infrastructure.

Rome is seeking to channel CO2 quantities to Greece for storage at the depleted Prinos field. According to Italy’s NECP, facilities with a capacity of 3.6 million tons per year will be built in Italy to offer export potential to Greece from the first half of 2030.

As a next step, Italy needs to complete a regulatory framework for carbon capture, before establishing related bilateral contacts with Greece.

The underground Prinos storage facility is planned to be operational no sooner than three years from now, with an initial CO2 storage capacity of between 0.5 and 1 million tons, which could be boosted in the future.

The project has been included in the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), while an application has also been submitted for EU Innovation Fund support.