Three companies have submitted bids in Sweden’s second reverse auction for bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (bio-CCS), competing for a support envelope of just over SEK 10 billion. The Swedish Energy Agency confirmed the applications from Renova, SYSAV and Öresundskraft after the call closed on 13 August. All three are municipal or regional waste-to-energy operators, a notable shift from the first round, and a sign that durable carbon removal in Europe is spreading beyond flagship biomass projects into the urban waste sector.

The Auction Mechanics

The second call opened on 16 December 2025 and ran for eight months. It is part of a state support scheme worth SEK 36 billion in total, distributable between 2026 and 2046, making it one of the largest public procurement programmes for engineered carbon removal anywhere.

The design is a reverse auction. Bidders state the support they require per tonne of biogenic CO2 captured, transported and geologically stored, and the lowest bids win, with any other public support counted on top of the bid. Support is paid retrospectively over 15 years, only once the carbon dioxide has actually been stored. Applicants must also file an implementation plan showing that geological storage can begin within four years of the funding decision.

That structure matters for buyers watching the programme from outside. Payments are results-based, delivery is contractually time-bound, and the auction forces cost disclosure in a market where durable removal prices are otherwise negotiated bilaterally and rarely published.

Round One Set the Benchmark

The first call, held in autumn 2024, ended with a single winner. Stockholm Exergi was awarded just over SEK 20 billion to store approximately 11 million tonnes of biogenic CO2 over 15 years, with capture expected to start around 2028. Dividing the award by the contracted volume puts the implied support level on the order of SEK 1,800 per tonne, the closest thing the European market has to a public benchmark for state-backed BECCS costs.

Round two is smaller, with roughly SEK 10.1 billion left in the envelope, but it introduces something the first round lacked: competition. Three bidders chasing one budget means the ranking criteria will actually bind, and the agency will publish more information once applications have been assessed and ranked.

“It is very positive that several actors want to contribute. CCS will be crucial to meeting our climate goals,” said Carl Mikael Strauss, Head of Unit at the Swedish Energy Agency.

Waste-to-Energy Changes the Supply Map

The composition of the bidder list is the real story. Sweden’s bio-CCS potential is usually framed around its pulp and paper mills, yet all three applicants are waste-to-energy utilities.

  • Renova is the Gothenburg region’s municipal waste and energy company, which has a long-standing ambition to fit carbon capture to its waste incineration plant.
  • SYSAV, owned by municipalities in southern Sweden, operates waste-to-energy capacity in the Malmo area. Swedish trade press has reported a company ambition for a capture plant ready by 2030, collecting around 540,000 tonnes of CO2 per year, of which roughly 40% is of fossil origin.
  • Öresundskraft, owned by the city of Helsingborg, runs the Filbornaverket waste-to-energy CHP plant, rated at 72 MW thermal and 18 MW electric and processing around 220,000 tonnes of waste per year. The city council approved its CCS project in April 2025.

The fossil share in that last data point is the key technical qualifier. Only the biogenic fraction of waste CO2 counts toward negative emissions under the support scheme, so waste-to-energy bids will live or die on how accurately applicants can measure and verify that fraction in mixed flue gas. Expect MRV methodology for biogenic share to become a competitive variable, not just a compliance detail.

What It Means for Buyers and Developers

For carbon removal buyers, Sweden’s programme is quietly building a contracted supply pipeline with sovereign backing. A first tranche of 11 million tonnes is already under award, and the second auction could add several million more depending on bid sizes. Support paid against verified storage, over 15 years, gives these projects the revenue floor that most durable CDR projects lack, and it lowers the counterparty risk for anyone negotiating offtakes alongside the state support.

For developers elsewhere in Europe, the signal is about eligibility breadth. Waste-to-energy operators winning a place in the auction widens the definition of who can supply durable removals, and it puts a price-discovery process around a project type that several EU countries are considering but few have funded. The four-year delivery requirement also filters out speculative applications: every ranked bid comes with a credible plan to inject CO2 by 2030.

What to Watch

The Energy Agency will now assess and rank the three applications against pre-set criteria and publish its funding decision. The numbers to watch are the awarded support per tonne, against the roughly SEK 1,800 benchmark implied by round one, and the total contracted volume, which will show how much of Sweden’s 2045 framework is being allocated through this channel.

That framework gives the programme its ceiling. Sweden targets net zero by 2045 and negative emissions thereafter, with complementary measures such as bio-CCS permitted to cover at most 15% of the required emissions reduction, equivalent to roughly 10.7 million tonnes of CO2 per year. How much of that headroom the auctions convert into operating capacity will determine whether Sweden stays a niche supplier or becomes the anchor market for durable removals in Europe.