Energy policy makers need information about the greenhouse gas reduction potential that could be realized by changes to the operation of the currently existing European power plant fleet to enable short-term actions. Possible measures could reduce the climate impact of the European electricity system and, additionally, be realized quickly as new investments are avoided. In this paper, the Calliope based energy system model Stella of the European electricity system is presented and used for the first time, with the goal to quantify cost and CO ${}_2$ emissions optimal operation strategies of the existing European power plant fleet. By applying the model to six scenarios the results show that the greenhouse gas emissions of the European power plant fleet could be reduced by more than 50% with little additional costs compared to today’s power generation mix. It is shown that historic power plant operation follows only economic considerations while not fully covering its climate impact. The results demonstrate to policy makers the scale of reduction potential that could be achieved by short-term actions.

Although initial CCUS demonstration projects are planned to commence as point-to-point projects, with a single pipeline or ships linking one source to one sink, the concept of ‘CCUS clusters’ is considered to be crucial to maximize the climate change mitigation potential of the technology. This work is part of ALIGN-CCUS, currently one of the largest European R&D projects on CCUS, with a work programme designed to enable the acceleration of CCUS in specific industrial regions in ERA-NET countries: Teesside and Grangemouth (UK), Rotterdam (NL), North Rhine-Westphalia (DE), Grenland (NO) and Oltenia (RO). The project will combine the results from each of these objectives to deliver actionable blueprints in each region, in which CCUS enables low-emission industries, through geological storage and/or utilization of CO2. Early work presented in this paper focuses primarily on development of CO2 supply profiles in the UK case study, a detailed CO2 emission inventory for North Rhine-Westphalia. An overview of work proposed in the other clusters is presented.