Work begins on one of world’s largest hydrogen storage facilities

Energy company SSE has begun developing an underground cavern in east Yorkshire to store hydrogen.

This has been designed to to stockpile the renewable source of power during freezing, windless conditions.

It will generate hydrogen using renewable energy in a 35-megawatt electrolyser, in a cavern a mile deep at an SSE site in Aldbrough on the coast. The hydrogen will power a turbine which can export power to the grid during periods of heavy demand.

The existing Aldbrough Gas Storage facility, which was commissioned in 2011, is co-owned by SSE Thermal and Norweigan energy company Equinor, and consists of nine underground salt caverns, each roughly the size of St Paul’s Cathedral.

SSE says it aims to get the project operational by 2025, before a larger hydrogen storage project planned for the same site in 2028 in collaboration with Equinor.

SSE explains hydrogen storage will be vital in creating a large-scale hydrogen economy in the UK and balancing the overall energy system by providing back up where large proportions of energy are produced from renewable power.

A spokesman for the business said: “As increasing amounts of hydrogen are produced both from offshore wind power, known as ‘green hydrogen’, and from natural gas with carbon capture and storage, known as ‘blue hydrogen’, facilities such as Aldbrough will provide storage for low-carbon energy.”