Underground hydrogen storage system goes online in Austria

• Gas storage operator RAG Austria AG has put into operation a demonstration project in Upper Austria that stores green hydrogen in a natural gas underground reservoir.

The system, finished within 2 years after the beginning of the project, is located in the Gampern municipality in northern Austria. It has the capacity to store 4.2 GWh of solar power created in summer in the form of hydrogen for winter season, RAG claimed last week. The business states that this is the world's first hydrogen storage system of this kind.

The center will certainly make it possible for the conversion of the excess solar energy from around 1,000 single-family homes into hydrogen and store it seasonally.

The outcomes of the Underground Sun Storage demonstration project will certainly help repurpose the existing gas storage facilities for hydrogen and green electrical energy storage. RAG sees fantastic possible in Austria as a result of its geological framework and existing storage capacity. This makes it possible to decouple the generation of renewable energy as well as its temporary usage and also to make it possible for the protection of supply throughout the year, the firm claimed.

RAG Austria's president Markus Mitteregger noted that need for a seasonal energy transfer in Austria alone is estimated at 10 TWh each year by 2030.