RAG Austria, the country’s largest gas storage operator, launched the world’s first pure hydrogen storage facility in a porous reservoir and is looking to continue this momentum, according to Independent Commodity Intelligence Services (ICIS).
The stored volumes at the site cover the equivalent of 4.2 gigawatt-hours of summer electricity.
Markus Mitteregger, CEO of RAG Austria, told ICIS the company could provide 10 billion cubic meters (bcm) of hydrogen storage capacity in the next 20 years. This is in line with the European Union’s targets, which include 10 million tonnes of renewable hydrogen to be produced internally by 2030, with the same amount to be imported from neighboring regions.
RAG Austria is testing different blends of hydrogen injections and is planning to source electrolyzed hydrogen produced in western Ukraine and store it in its sites or ship it to southern Germany in the upcoming decades.