Enabling large-scale offshore wind with underground hydrogen storage

Mouli-Castillo, Julien; Edlmann, Katriona; Thaysen, Eike Marie; Scafidi, Jonathan

doi:10.3997/1365-2397.fb2021044

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 18 publications

(22 reference statements)

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“…Using hydrogen (H 2 ) to transport and store energy is a simple and technically feasible approach for balancing these intermittent supply and demand challenges at a large scale (e.g., Gahleitner, 2013;Crotogino, 2016;Tarkowski, 2019;Mouli-Castillo et al, 2021;Muhammed et al, 2022). During periods of higher than required output from wind or solar sources, the excess power can be used to electrolyze water and produce 'green' hydrogen (e.g., Crotogino, 2016).…”

Section: Salt Caverns and The Emerging Hydrogen Economymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of Salt Tectonics in the Energy Transition: An Overview and Future Challenges

Duffy

Hudec

Peel

et al. 2023

tekt

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In this paper we examine the role salt tectonics can play in a number of key energy transition technologies, namely, energy storage as gas in salt caverns (e.g. hydrogen and compressed air), CO2 storage, and geothermal energy. For each of these technologies we explore: i) fundamental concepts and driving forces; ii) how and why the properties of salt are of importance; and iii) the key salt-related technical challenges, potential future research directions, and technical approaches needed for large-scale development. We highlight how salt-bearing basins offer vast potential for development throughout the energy transition including, but not limited to: i) the likely demand for thousands of new hydrogen storage caverns inside salt bodies by 2050; ii) a likely early focus for porous media CO2 storage sites in basins strongly influenced by salt tectonics; and iii) enhanced geothermal energy potential in and around salt bodies. Effective exploitation of these resources will require a deeper understanding of the internal composition, geometry, and evolution of salt structures and their surrounding sediments, and potentially the development of more predictive models of salt tectonic behaviour. Critically, we see the need to integrate learnings of salt tectonics gained in the academic, mining, solution mining, and oil and gas communities, and apply a fresh perspective to answer research questions of relevance to the energy transition. Developing this new understanding will help optimise design, reduce geotechnical risk, and improve efficiency for energy transition technologies, thus indicating a strong future demand for salt tectonic research.

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Section: Salt Caverns and The Emerging Hydrogen Economymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of Salt Tectonics in the Energy Transition: An Overview and Future Challenges

Duffy

Hudec

Peel

et al. 2023

tekt

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Using hydrogen (H2) to transport and store energy is a simple and technically feasible approach for balancing these intermittent supply and demand challenges at a large scale (e.g. Gahleitner, 2013;Tarkowski, 2019;Mouli-Castillo et al, 2021;Muhammed et al, 2022). During periods of higher than required output from wind or solar sources, the excess power can be used to electrolyze water and produce 'green' hydrogen (e.g.…”

Section: Salt Caverns and The Emerging Hydrogen Economymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of Salt Tectonics in the Energy Transition: An Overview and Future Challenges

Duffy¹,

Hudec²,

Peel³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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The fundamental properties of salt have long been exploited in the search for hydrocarbons, as they influence many of the hydrocarbon play elements. This industrial application has driven the pursuit of salt tectonic knowledge over the last century and led to major conceptual advances in the field. However, the current need, and social-political demand, to decarbonize suggests that the applicability of salt tectonic knowledge will expand to other aspects of the subsurface that are relevant to the energy transition. The pace of this change leaves the field of salt tectonics grappling with a fundamental question – what role does salt tectonics have as part of the energy transition? Here, we discuss the role salt tectonics can play in a number of key energy transition technologies, namely, energy storage as gas in salt caverns (e.g. hydrogen and compressed air), CO2 storage, and geothermal energy. For each of these technologies we explore: i) fundamental concepts and driving forces; ii) how and why the properties of salt are of importance; and iii) the key salt-related technical challenges, potential future research directions, and technical approaches needed for large-scale development. We highlight how salt basins offer vast potential for development throughout the energy transition including, but not limited to: i) the likely demand for thousands of new hydrogen storage caverns inside salt bodies by 2050; ii) a likely early focus for porous media CO2 storage sites in basins strongly influenced by salt tectonics; and iii) enhanced geothermal energy potential in and around salt bodies. Effective exploitation of these resources will require a deeper understanding of the internal composition, geometry, and evolution of salt structures and their surrounding sediments, and potentially the development of more predictive models of salt tectonic behaviour. Critically, we see the need to integrate learnings of salt tectonics gained in the academic, mining, solution mining, and oil and gas communities, and apply a fresh perspective to answer research questions of relevance to the energy transition. Developing this new understanding will help optimise design, reduce geotechnical risk, and improve efficiency for energy transition technologies, thus indicating a strong future demand for salt tectonic research.

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Techno-economic analysis of coupling wind-powered green hydrogen production with geological storage

Schwartz

Menefee

2023

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The intermittent nature of wind power creates mismatches between electricity supply and demand, limiting its penetration in modern electricity grids. In this study, we explore the techno-economic potential to balance grid loads by coupling wind power generation with hydrogen (H 2 ) production and underground storage. For a hypothetical 1GW electricity market, we compare costs and logistics of wind power with and without coupled H 2 storage in three leading underground storage options: salt caverns, lined rock caverns, and depleted oil and gas reservoirs. We calculate rates of return (ROR) for a 30-year facility lifetime based on 12,320 scenarios that span the full range of project variables, including cavern size, cavern installation costs, cost of hydrolysis, transmission costs, production tax credit, and compression costs. The model is built from the perspective of a hypothetical wind power producer that owns and operates the storage facility and is large enough to sell directly to end users, such that electricity sale prices can be assumed to be in the retail range. The model does not include infrastructure and maintenance costs for a hydrogen transmission network. Therefore, the model is not an optimization of an entire energy system, but rather is optimized for a large entity (a utility) within an energy system under the assumption of constant parameters. The results suggest that coupled H 2 production and storage can increase wind power capacity factors from an average of 0.38 to 0.62 without any loss of wind power generation, or a 40% increase relative to typical capacity factors without H 2 storage. Coupled H 2 storage can also increase a wind farm's ROR from ∼8% to over 15% over a 30-year project lifetime, where underground storage in salt caverns provides the greatest potential ROR increase. We also consider different project financing scenarios and find that subsidizing H 2 storage is more effective in improving wind power economics than existing production tax credits, which suggests that understanding and reducing underground storage costs has greater potential to expand wind power penetration than measures focused explicitly on incentivizing wind power production itself.

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Enabling large-scale offshore wind with underground hydrogen storage

Cited by 3 publications

References 18 publications

The Role of Salt Tectonics in the Energy Transition: An Overview and Future Challenges

The Role of Salt Tectonics in the Energy Transition: An Overview and Future Challenges

The Role of Salt Tectonics in the Energy Transition: An Overview and Future Challenges

Techno-economic analysis of coupling wind-powered green hydrogen production with geological storage

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