How can gas storage facilities in Germany be used in the future? According to a study, they could be adapted for use with hydrogen – but only partially.
According to a recent study by industry associations, some of Germany’s gas storage facilities can be used to store hydrogen in the future.
According to the “Storing hydrogen – that’s for sure” study, existing gas storage facilities could be converted to store 32 terawatt hours of hydrogen. A further 41 terawatt hours of capacity would therefore have to be added in order to achieve the German long-term climate target.
The study was presented in Berlin on Monday. It was created under the direction of the Gas Technological Institute in Freiburg. Clients are the Federal Association for Natural Gas, Oil and Geoenergy, the German Technical and Scientific Association for Gas and Water and the Energy Storage Initiative.
Hydrogen is considered a building block of the energy transition because it can be used to store the fluctuating amounts of electricity from wind and sun. According to the study, so-called cavern storage facilities for gas could be adapted for use with hydrogen. Caverns are large cavities in underground salt formations such as salt domes. There are also pore storage systems in which gas is pressed into porous rock. According to the experts, only four out of sixteen of these storage facilities could be used for hydrogen. Accordingly, investments of up to 12.8 billion euros would be necessary for new construction and conversion.
