Sweden: Heidelberg Materials has withdrawn its application to build a carbon capture and storage (CCS) facility at its Slite cement plant after the Swedish Energy Agency rejected its request for nearly €747m in funding. The company had applied for an environmental permit in June 2024 and previously planned to complete the facility by 2030. It announced in November 2025 that it had ‘paused’ the project.
Head of public affairs Hannes Borg said “This is a result of us putting the CCS project on hold in November 2025 until there is more clarity about the financing. A permit application cannot be put on hold, while it was in the schedule for us to submit additional information. Since we still have not resolved the crucial issue of financing, we therefore had to withdraw the application. However, the ambition to build a carbon capture facility in Slite remains.”
Borg added that if the company bears the full cost of the project, the costs for end consumers would be too high for the project to be commercially viable. However, he said that the company remained ‘fully committed’ to getting a CCS facility in place in Slite, and was now working to identify sustainable financing solutions and ‘continuing the dialogue’ with decision-makers.