Energy stored as hydrogen in salt cavities will be the most cost-effective long duration solution for many countries configuring net-zero grids around intermittent renewables.

Great Britain is a case in point where typical wind intermittency patterns suggest a storage need in the range of several tens of TWh; and where local geology provides sufficient suitable salt layer to accommodate this requirement.

This makes hydrogen storage in salt cavities both a source of potential competitive advantage, and a huge commercial opportunity, as a new industry with new equipment and new infrastructure is developed.

This event, which took place at the Geological Society in March 2023, built on the success of two previous events in 2021 and 2022, with an entirely new list of speakers – including operators of existing salt cavity storage facilities, developers of new schemes and engineers addressing design and innovation challenges.

The event covered the following:

• The technical challenges of storing hydrogen in caverns.
• The potential in the UK for making salt caverns to store hydrogen.
• Case studies of hydrogen storage in caverns in mainland Europe and the UK.
• Status of hydrogen turbines and compressors and challenges around their development
• A discussion on business models for operating caverns.
• The requirement for new policies that support and promote the development of hydrogen storage caverns.

The meeting concluded with a thought-provoking discussion panel comprising delegates from government bodies as well as experts from academia and industry.

Download the event report

The full report from this event, including a summary of each presentation and the discussion sessions can be downloaded here.

Please click on the links below to access the slides and the videos from this event.

09:20 – 09:50 – Registration

10:00 – 10:20 – Marcus Eich (Uniper): The impact of hydrogen blending on existing gas storage infrastructure

10:20 – 10:40 – Alan Leadbetter (Storengy): Hypster project – Large scale hydrogen underground storage in France

10:40 – 11:00 – Hans-Age Nielsen (Corre Energy): An overview of Corre Energy’s ongoing projects in Denmark and the Netherlands

11:00 – 11:10 – Q&As

11:10 11:30 – Coffee Break and Networking

11:30 – 11:50 – Sebastian Boor (Uniper): Hydrogen pilot cavern development at Krummhorn, Germany

11.50 – 12:10 – Richard Applewhite (Inovyn): The HyKeuper Project – Planning a large H2 storage in the UK

12:10 – 12:30 – Felicia Chang / Louis Day (Element Energy): Business and commercial aspects of H2 storage in caverns

12:30 – 12:40 – Q&As

12:40 13:45 Lunch and Networking

13:45 – 14:05 – Tim Armitage (ARUP)

14:05 – 14:25 – Elodie Zausa (Geostock): Different ways to store H2 underground with a focus on lined rock cavern project from a business development standpoint

14:25 – 14:45 – Serge van Gessel (IEA Hydrogen TCP) “Towards demonstration and implementation of underground hydrogen storage”

14:45 – 15:05 – Andres Fernandez and Tasos Stavrou (WSP): The State of Hydrogen Underground Storage Projects. A Real Sample under development in Utah.

15:05 – 15:15 – Q&As

15:15 – 15:35 – Coffee Break and Networking

15:35 – 16:20 – A thought-provoking discussion panel including:

• Shabana Jamil – Head of Hydrogen Storage Business Model @ Department for Energy Security & Net Zero
• Frances Buckingham – Energy Engineer@ Department for Energy Security & Net Zero
• Susannah Ferris – Hydrogen Market Strategy Lead @ National Grid
• Michael Wagner – Hydrogen Advisor @ AFRY

16:20 – 16:30 – Closing Words

if you would like to join the discussion around energy storage and policy, and want to be kept informed of future events and reports on this subject, please email us with your details and your interest in energy storage.