German energy services provider EWE is building an underground hydrogen storage facility.
Hydrogen will be stored in a cave around 1,000 metres deep in the salt rock beneath Rüdersdorf, near Berlin.
This will be the first time 100% pure hydrogen will be stored in this way.
EWE aims to study how this environmentally friendly energy carrier called HyCAVmobil (Hydrogen Cavern for Mobility) can be integrated into the regional energy system.
Hydrogen can be stored and transported, and is a green gas when produced using renewable energies.
Construction of EWE’s 500 m3 experimental cave at a cost of €10 million should take 18 months to complete.
“In the second half of 2022, we hope to know how pure the hydrogen is after being racked in the cave. Purity is a particularly important factor when using hydrogen in the mobility sector,”explained Stefan Dohler, CEO of EWE.
The company is cooperating with the German Aerospace Centre (DLR), which will measure the quality of the hydrogen during storage and after its extraction from the cave. Depending on the results of the experiment, a larger cave storage installation could be used in future.
EWE owns salt caves in north-western Germany that could be suitable for future hydrogen storage.
Actemium Energy, Öl & Gas Rheine won the contract for all electrical installations, instrumentation and command-and-control (ICC), and ICC connections for EWE’s Rüdersdorf facility.
“Our work includes project engineering, assembly, commissioning and operation of the experimental hydrogen storage cave’s electrical, measurement, control and automation systems,” added Andreas Rauen, project manager at Actemium Energy, Öl & Gas Rheine.
German energy provider experiments with cave for hydrogen storage
