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Storing hydrogen deep underground in salt caverns and converting it into a reliable power source could help meet the UK’s future peak energy and load following demands, a new report has suggested.
The Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) study looks at the role hydrogen storage could play in a responsive power system, using findings from a techno-economic study carried out by Amec Foster Wheeler for the ETI into hydrogen production, the stores themselves and the power sector that converts hydrogen into electricity.
It concluded that using salt caverns to store hydrogen for power generation when the demand for electricity peaks would reduce the investment needed in new clean power station capacity.
Den Gammer, the ETI’s strategy manager for carbon capture and storage, said: “The UK’s energy landscape is changing very rapidly. More renewable power supplies are being installed and, although clean, these new supplies are intermittent, which increases the need for a low cost, clean, on-demand power supply that currently only fossil fuel plants can provide.
“The country needs a system that follows the load the public creates and our research shows that systems involving the storage of hydrogen and creating power from it, can do that in a very flexible way.
“The main benefit is one of cost as it would 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 one UK city.”
Today, salt caverns are already used for storing oil and natural gas and there are around 30 very large caverns in the UK.
The techno-economic modelling concentrated on a relatively shallow field of caverns in Teesside, deeper stores in East Yorkshire and an intermediate one, such as the salt caverns found in Cheshire.
The ETI believes that fossil fuels will still have a role to play in the UK’s energy system beyond 2030, but those plants should be equipped with carbon capture and storage technology.
The ETI report went on to warn that decisions taken in the next decade will be critical in preparing for the transition and decisions must be made about the design of the UK future energy system by 2025 to avoid wasting investment and ensure the 2050 climate targets remain achievable.