In June 2024, the HyUSPRe project consortium published its final deliverable: a roadmap for successful deployment of underground hydrogen storage in porous reservoirs in Europe. In Europe’s future energy system hydrogen will play an important role in i) decarbonising hard-to-abate end-uses, and ii) enabling renewables penetration, cost-effective transport and distribution of clean energy, and system resilience.
Underground hydrogen storage in porous reservoirs is a key enabler to unlock these benefits of hydrogen because it i) offers flexibility to balance supply and demand of hydrogen, maximise renewables integration and reduce curtailment, ii) enables optimisation of infrastructure sizing and increases system resilience, and iii) improves energy security and independence by enabling long-duration energy storage and maintaining strategic reserves.
HyUSPRe research finds that up to 270 TWh of storage capacity will be required in 2050 to support a fully developed hydrogen value chain, of which the majority (60%) is to be developed in porous reservoirs.
In the roadmap the consortium proposes actions grouped into five thematic areas that are required for timely deployment of this storage capacity: 1) technology development, upscaling and optimization; 2) management of environmental impacts; 3) establishing business models and economic viability; 4) regulatory framework; and 5) ensuring societal awareness and acceptance.
Curious to see which actions we propose? Have a look at the roadmap!
More information on the project: https://www.hyuspre.eu/