A new project has been launched by the Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) to examine in further detail the potential for storing hydrogen and hydrogen gas mixtures in salt caverns which can then be used in gas turbines when demand for electricity is high.
The latest ETI project will identify and examine three existing salt caverns in Cheshire, Teeside and East Yorkshire that could be used to store hydrogen to be used in power generation. It builds on earlier ETI work showing that storing hydrogen in salt caverns could provide a significant contribution to decarbonising the UK’s future electricity grid.
An ETI report published last year highlighted the potential role hydrogen storage could play in a clean, responsive power system. It detailed how using salt caverns to store hydrogen to be used for power generation reduces the level of investment required at a system level to build new clean power station capacity. The report showed how a single H2 cavern could cater for the peak energy demands and fluctuations of a whole city.
Currently, there are over 30 large salt caverns in use in the UK storing natural gas for the heat and power market.
“The end goal of the project is to understand the challenges, opportunities and costs of creating and operating these stores. Said ETI Project Manager Paul Winstanley. “Storing and using hydrogen can 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. This project will provide more detail on the suitability of individual caverns and the costs associated with using them, increasing the evidence base needed if they are to be developed further.”
The ETI is a public-private partnership between global energy and engineering companies and the UK Government. Its role is to act as a conduit between academia, industry and the government to accelerate the development of low carbon technologies. It does this by bringing together engineering projects that develop affordable, secure and sustainable technologies to help the UK address its long term emissions reductions targets as well as delivering nearer term benefits. The ETI makes targeted commercial investments in nine technology programmes across heat, power, transport and the infrastructure that links them.
The Request for Proposals will close on 2nd June 2016, with the deadline for notification of intention to submit a proposal being 11th May 2016.
For additional information:
