HSiC-2024 was run as part of a the energy storage conference UKES, which ran 10th-12th April 2024.
Storing hydrogen underground will be a vital component in the UK achieving Net Zero. Transformation from primary energy to hydrogen and back again to usable energy is not technically complex – and huge amounts of energy can be stored in this medium.
Last year the Royal Society published a report entitled “Large Scale Electricity Storage” where they emphasize that the UK will need about 100 TWh of storage capacity provided by underground hydrogen caverns and depleted fields to decarbonise the electricity system. Rounding to the nearest integer, the country currently has a total 0 TWh of storage capacity. There is a real need to get on with it!
In an effort to kickstart strategic developments in the country, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero has published a document outlining the government’s plans to support hydrogen storage, including a strategy to minimize the risk of low revenue for potential cavern operators.
This year the Hydrogen Storage in Caverns 2024 (HSIC 2024) event took place at the University of Nottingham on the 12th of April. It was held as part of the wider UK Energy Storage Conference (UKES 2024). It builds on successful previous events held in London in [2020, 2022, and 2023].
The event explored some of the key challenges involved in deploying the necessary amounts of hydrogen caverns as well as some of the high profile projects currently being carried out in the country .