Lower Saxony’s Environment Minister, Olaf Lies, announced the financial notification of €2,375,000 for Uniper’s proposed hydrogen pilot project at the Krummhoern natural gas storage facility.
On the occasion of the handover, he said: “The climate crisis and the war against Ukraine are forcing us to push ahead with the energy transition at top speed. It has long been clear that the energy transition cannot be achieved with electrons alone. Hydrogen will be a central element for the success of the energy transition. We need it to become independent of fossil fuels and to decarbonize our energy sector and industry. The advantage of hydrogen is that it can be stored. In order for it to develop this advantage, we need storage facilities, including caverns. I’m pleased that Uniper wants to use cavern storage for hydrogen here in Lower Saxony. We are happy to support this path. It’s in all our interests that we go forward quickly.”
Doug Waters, Managing Director of Uniper Energy Storage, said: “We are delighted about the funding commitment from the state of Lower Saxony. With this pilot project, we are gathering the empirical data that we urgently need in a world without fossil fuels: namely, how we can realize the storage capability of green electricity in a CO2-free future.”
The ability to store hydrogen-converted electricity is essential for balancing future supply and demand variations. Existing storage facilities, however, are built for natural gas and would require conversion to accommodate hydrogen.
Uniper Energy Storage will test the construction and operation of a new salt cavern designed exclusively for hydrogen storage on a large scale and in a real-world setting at the natural gas storage facility in Krummhoer, Northern Germany, which has not been commercially used since 2017. Using an existing well, a new pilot cavern will be sol-technically created for this purpose. During the trial operation, equipment and materials will be tested for their compatibility with hydrogen, and experience will be obtained with the storage of purely green hydrogen in a salt cavern and its subsequent delivery and usage.
The storage facility is slated to begin operations in 2024 and will be among the first of its kind. Uniper will invest approximately €10 million in the green future project, which will have a hydrogen storage capacity of up to 250,000 cubic meters.
Krummhoern’s geographic location near the windy North Sea and its decades-old energy connections to the gas and electricity grids make it an ideal energy location, bolstering the significance of the region and Lower Saxony as an energy hub in Central Europe, complementing Uniper’s nearby Wilhelmshaven site and the “Green Wilhelmshaven” project.
The “KRUH2” hydrogen pilot project of Open Grid Europe GmbH (OGE), which is also financed by the state of Lower Saxony, is conveniently located on the company’s grounds. Here, the focus is on how green hydrogen can be created on-site using an electrolyzer and stored in modest quantities to meet the heat, mobility, and energy needs of a factory. Uniper and OGE have collaborated closely in a variety of technical sectors for decades.
Uniper, with decades of experience and a pioneering attitude, is advancing the energy transition and securing the future energy supply through the storage of natural gas, hydrogen, and other clean gases.
