Storing hydrogen in salt caverns would help meet peak power loads

Storing hydrogen deep underground in salt caverns and converting it into a reliable, affordable, flexible power source could help meet the UK’s future peak energy and load following demands, according to a new report by the Energy Technologies Institute (ETI).

The report, written by the ETI’s Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Strategy Manager Den Gammer, used the findings from a techno-economic study carried out by Amec Foster Wheeler for the ETI into the technologies used in hydrogen production, the stores themselves and the power sector that converts hydrogen into electricity.

It concludes that using salt caverns to store hydrogen for power generation when the demand for electricity peaks would reduce the investment needed in new clean power station capacity. Today, salt caverns are already used for storing oil and natural gas and there are around 30 very large caverns in the UK.

Gammer said: ‘The UK’s energy landscape is changing very rapidly. More renewable power supplies are being installed and, although clean, these new supplies are intermittent, which increases the need for a low cost, clean, on-demand power supply that currently only fossil fuel plants can provide. The country needs a system that follows the load the public creates, and our research shows that systems involving the storage of hydrogen and creating power from it, can do that in a very flexible way. Modelling shows that such storage schemes become effective in the time period 2030–2040.’

Gammer concluded: ‘The main benefit is one of cost, as it would be a low cost way of providing clean power for peak and load following demand. Large amounts of energy can be stored, with one cavern providing enough storage capacity to satisfy the peak demands of a single UK city.’