salt caverns

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.

South Australia has found itself at the heart of a 21st-century gold rush, though this time for naturally occurring hydrogen. Since February 2021, 18 exploration licenses have been granted or applied for in the state by six different companies searching for natural hydrogen.

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.

Vattenfall, SSAB and LKAB are building a rock cavern storage facility in a coastal city in northern Sweden. The 100-cubic-meter facility will be built 30 meters below ground and will begin storing green hydrogen next year.

German energy provider EWE wants to set up a test cavern with a capacity of 500 cubic meters at a depth of 1,000 meters. It is scheduled to go into operation in spring 2022.

A new study has assessed the geological feasibility of large-scale seasonal underground hydrogen storage in Canada and has found that the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin and southern Ontario are the most suitable areas for the technology.

Hydrogène de France and gas grid company Teréga plan to launch a feasibility study for a 1.5 GWh pilot hydrogen storage project in caverns in the southwest of the country.