salt cavern storage

Australia’s ambitions to become a major player in global green hydrogen production have received a boost with a new report from Geoscience Australia confirming the potential for large-scale, underground storage of hydrogen in salt caverns across the country.

Vattenfall, SSAB and LKAB have reached the halfway point in the construction of a rock cavern storage facility in a coastal city in northern Sweden. The 100-cubic-meter facility is being constructed 30 meters below ground and will begin storing green hydrogen next year.

Underground hydrogen storage seems to be coming up a lot lately, and with the burgeoning hydrogen industry needing somewhere to store itself, it’s not hard to understand why. One of the countries with the best credentials for the future hydrogen economy is Australia. A newly published report has quantified the country’s “massive opportunity” for underground hydrogen storage.

Operated by Gasunie, the underground storage facility is located near Veendam in the province of Groningen and should be fully operational in 2026. Tests will be run until spring 2022.

European electric transmission company body ENTSO-E has unveiled details of a project to install 11 GWh of electrolyzed hydrogen storage capacity across ten locations around the French capital by the end of the decade.