Dedicated Sessions Hydrogen

Energy storage will be critical to provide flexibility and robustness to a largely renewable based energy system in the future. For durations of weeks to months and for storage capacities in the GWh to TWh range, underground hydrogen storage will be the only option next to geographically limited pumped-hydro storage.

Extensive lab experiments and numerical simulation activities have significantly advanced our understanding of underground hydrogen storage during the last 5-10 years. These activities are increasingly complemented by piloting and demonstration projects that test the technologies in real life conditions and as components of an integrated value chain.

This session will showcase several underground hydrogen storage pilot projects in salt caverns, depleted gas fields, and aquifers in a variety of countries and geological environments. It will aim at distilling main insights and conclusions from the work to date and highlight remaining uncertainties and de-risking requirements to inform the R&D community. Moreover, non-technical challenges, e.g. related to regulatory and public approval, will be addressed in the session. Next to presentation, sufficient time will be reserved for discussion to contrast the experiences of different operators and to address questions from the audience.