WHY EUROPEAN UNDERGROUND HYDROGEN STORAGE NEEDS SHOULD BE FULFILLED
underground hydrogen storage has the potential to deliver significant benefits to the system;
We quantify that optimising the energy system to minimise costs to society requires important underground hydrogen storage capacities;
However we show that currently-announced projects do not meet the optimal storage needs of the energy system and a significant gap results;
We demonstrate that under current conditions the market alone will fail to close the gap between planned UHS capacities and the optimal level for the system;
Hence, we recommend targeted policy intervention to promote UHS and support a more cost-efficient, integrated European energy system. Underground hydrogen storage has the potential to deliver significant benefits to the system Renewable and low carbon hydrogen will create a link between the electricity and gas sectors, with electrolysis using electricity as a key input for hydrogen production.
Electrolytic hydrogen will not only be a new energy vector contributing to the decarbonisation of otherwise hard-toabate industrial processes; it can also provide flexibility to the energy system as a whole – in particular through the ability to store hydrogen much more easily and at larger scale than can be done with electricity
