(Düsseldorf, Germany) – The Düsseldorf-based energy company Uniper SE, through its subsidiary Uniper Energy Storage, plans to develop salt caverns for the underground storage of hydrogen by 2030. The planned capacity is estimated to range from 250 to 600 gigawatt-hours. The focus will be on Northwest Germany, particularly Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia. Existing and new sites along the core hydrogen network will be examined.
Uniper demands funding
However, a “stable regulatory and funding framework” is required for cost-covering business models, says Holger Kreetz, COO Uniper. Whether and how the storage projects could be implemented “depends largely on the general conditions and economic viability”. Concrete proposals have already been drawn up “which, on the one hand, ensure a balanced relationship between the necessary protection of investment risks and a competitive market model and, on the other hand, ensure security of supply through natural gas storage.”
Cavern storage systems can compensate for short, medium and long-term fluctuations in production and demand and are very powerful due to their rapid storage and withdrawal. © Uniper SE
According to Uniper Energy Storage, it has a total of nine underground natural gas storage facilities in Germany, Austria and Great Britain with a capacity of more than 80 terawatt hours. This makes the company one of the largest storage operators in Europe. “As part of the hydrogen ramp-up, we want to reallocate some of our storage capacity and build new storage facilities,” says Managing Director Doug Waters. “This allows us to store renewable energy in the form of hydrogen for hard-to-electrify industries and later potentially use it for long-term energy storage to enable better management of volatile renewable generation.”
Storage for security of supply
The planned supply of hydrogen to the market from 2030 onwards, despite fluctuating production, will be made possible largely through the construction and operation of large-volume hydrogen storage systems. The transformation of the energy system now requires “quick, needs-based retrofitting of existing underground facilities and the construction of new ones.” At the same time, the natural gas storage facilities would have to continue to guarantee the current security of supply over the coming years.
Pore storage facilities, which, according to Uniper, are primarily found in southern Germany, have high volumes that can be used for seasonal storage. © Uniper SE
Uniper's hydrogen projects “Hydrogen Pilot Cavern” (HPC) in Krummhörn and “HyStorage” in Bierwang have already been used to prepare commercial storage projects. Krummhörn will deliver “valuable results” for the implementation of commercial hydrogen storage by 2025. The site should then be further developed in order to provide the market with a storage capacity of 250 gigawatt hours in a first step. The commissioning of the first commercial hydrogen storage facility is planned for the third quarter of 2029. According to Uniper, “an additional investment volume of around 200 million euros is planned over the next five years for the construction of the above-ground and adaptation of the underground facilities.” In the future, an expansion of the site to higher storage capacities is possible after 2030.
In order to forecast the demand for the required hydrogen storage capacities, Uniper Energy Storage is conducting a market survey until the end of March 2024.
Photos
Above-ground view of the Krummhörn natural gas storage facility: Uniper is using a salt cavern storage facility that has no longer been used commercially since 2017 to gain insights into how hydrogen can be stored and how devices and materials react. The new cavern to be built has a geometric volume of around 3.000 cubic meters. The storage facility is no longer used for natural gas because continued operation is not economically viable. © Uniper SE
