Streethran, N., Byrne, K., White, J., O’Neill, N., and Leahy, P. G. (2024). ‘Optimising Production and Long-Term Bulk Storage of Hydrogen from Offshore Wind in Subsurface Salt Caverns’. Available at: https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4960296.
ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/384130740
GitHub: https://github.com/wind-to-hydrogen-toolkit/hydrogen-salt-storage
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See the Wind-to-Hydrogen Toolkit GitHub organisation for updates on the H-Wind project: https://github.com/wind-to-hydrogen-toolkit
Abstract
There is a growing interest in large-scale energy storage using green hydrogen produced from sources such as offshore wind energy. This is being driven by three factors: a greater desire for energy security; the push towards zero-carbon electricity generation; and the need to provide back-up power sources to complement large-scale variable renewables. Storing hydrogen in dissolved subsurface salt caverns has several advantages: the offshore location minimises disruption and impacts to land-based communities and infrastructure; the potential storage volumes are very large, suitable for multi-annual and seasonal-level reserve energy storage; and the technology is modular and scalable. Recent geological investigations have identified potential locations for such facilities to be developed. There are several locations around the world with plentiful wind resources adjacent to geological features suitable for subsurface storage of hydrogen. This opens up the possibility of hybrid offshore wind-hydrogen production sites directly coupled to subsurface storage facilities. The Kish Basin of the Irish Sea is one such location, with several major offshore wind projects under development, and substantial deep and thick layers of subsurface halite suitable for storage facilities. This study develops a model of offshore wind generation, conversion to hydrogen, and subsurface storage in order to examine the feasibility of such a facility. Potential cavern locations and their theoretical storage capacities are determined using geological data of halite distribution. The model is applied to economically optimise the number of caverns required and their locations.
Keywords: hydrogen from offshore wind, long-term bulk hydrogen storage, subsurface salt caverns, hydrogen economy in Ireland, geological storage
Acknowledgements
This research was carried out as part of the H-Wind and HYSS projects. The H-Wind project was supported by a research grant from Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) under Grant No. 12/RC/2302 – P2 and by the industry consortium members: DP Energy, Equinor, ESB, and Gas Networks Ireland. The HYSS project was supported by a grant from Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) and Geological Survey Ireland under the SEAI Research, Development & Demonstration Funding Programme 2021, Grant No. 21/RDD/725.