Austria commissions first underground hydrogen storage facility for seasonal electricity storage

The first underground storage facility for "green" hydrogen, which will enable surplus electricity to be transferred from summer to winter, has been commissioned. The "Underground Sun Storage" project was developed at the site of a former porous natural gas storage facility in Rubensdorf, Austria, where the local natural gas storage operator RAG Austria AG aims to demonstrate that this form of seasonal electricity storage will be viable in the future.

Around two years after the project began, Austrian natural gas storage operator RAG Austria AG commissioned an underground hydrogen storage facility intended for seasonal electricity storage in the form of hydrogen. According to information released, the facility should be capable of storing summer surpluses from around 1000 rooftop solar power systems, with the volume of stored hydrogen amounting to 4,2 GWh (1,2 million m3).

Seasonal electricity storage is an important challenge to address in the transition to a power system that depends to a large extent on solar and wind power plants. In the winter months, which already see higher electricity consumption than summer, generation from solar power plants is very low and wind power generation is irregular. Moreover, as heating becomes increasingly electrified, electricity consumption in winter will continue to rise.