National Gas, the UK’s gas transmission system owner and operator, has secured funding to study the use of a underground hydrogen energy storage developed by Scottish firm Gravitricity.
The project has been awarded the first phase of a grant from Ofgem’s Strategic Innovation Fund to carry out a three-month feasibility study of Gravitricity’s H2FlexiStore technology, which uses the geology of the earth to store up to 100 tonnes of pressurised hydrogen in a lined underground rock shaft. This could be followed by a full-scale demonstrator project starting in 2025 and could ultimately see H2FlexiStore used for intermediate storage across the UK.
According to Gravitricity co-founder and executive chairman Martin Wright, H2FlexiStore will be a key technology in gas networks of the future. ‘The future large-scale adoption of green hydrogen in industrial processes and for heat and transport will require safe and cost-effective mid-scale hydrogen storage which can be located wherever required – both in distribution networks and at point of use.’
The project consortium also includes Southern Gas Networks, the University of Edinburgh, Energy Reform and Revolutionary Engineering and Design.
