Germany can meet future hydrogen storage needs with salt caverns – econ ministry
Clean Energy Wire / Tagesspiegel Background
Germany can store enough hydrogen in salt caverns alone to meet more than the maximum expected national and European demand needs, the economy ministry (BMWK) has said in a white paper on hydrogen storage, which is set to form the basis for the next government’s work on hydrogen. "Germany has ideal geological conditions to meet its own hydrogen storage needs and those of its European neighbours," the ministry wrote in a press release. "Salt caverns offer particularly great potential for the long-term storage of large quantities of hydrogen."
In turn, storage in porous rock formations, which are found largely in southern Germany, is associated with considerable uncertainties, the ministry said, adding that it would therefore not further analyse their potential. "This would mean that southern Germany, with its energy-intensive industry, would be largely cut off from direct access to hydrogen storage facilities," energy and climate newsletter Tagesspiegel Background reported. Scientific advisors and industry associations have previously called on the government to use porous storage, it added.
Salt caverns are artificial cavities in underground salt formations, which are created by the controlled dissolution of rock salt by injection of water. On top of having many salt caverns, Germany also has comparatively large amount of natural gas storage capacity which could be converted to hydrogen storage. Natural gas is currently stored at 47 locations in Germany, but there are no pure hydrogen storage facilities yet, Tagesspiegel Background reported. Two thirds of the storage capacity is found in caverns, while one third is porous storage.
Hydrogen storage demand is set to rise from 2-7 terawatt hours (TWh) in 2030 to between 76 and 80 TWh by 2045, the white paper stated. So-called green hydrogen made with renewable electricity is seen as crucial to decarbonise certain industry processes and for large-scale renewable power storage, thus helping to make the economy climate-neutral.
