‘We’re still in the 1970s with cement’: Norway plant to blaze carbon-free concrete trail

Heidelberg Materials’ cement plant with a carbon capture and storage facility in Brevik, Norway. Photograph: Ajit Niranjan/The Guardian

Shining bright among the hulking grey towers and tangled, dust-dulled pipes, at the mouth of a fjord two hours south-west of Oslo, stands a slim metal tube that may soon be hailed as a milestone in the energy transition.

The 100 metre-tall structure was erected in August with millimetre precision to trap carbon dioxide that spews out of a sprawling cement plant near the old shipping town of Brevik in Norway. Set to be finished by the end of the year, the facility will be the first of a handful around the world to capture carbon in the production of cement.