The Potential of the Hydrogen Underground Storages: their Types, Development Chalannges and the Latvian Situation

Hydrogen is regarded as one of the best solutions for energy storage, especially, for energy coming from variable renewable energy sources, which currently lack large-scale cost-effective and universally approved storage solutions. Electricity production from renewable energy sources can be rather unstable, as it is governed by ever changing weather patterns. These changes, however, can result in shortages of energy production, in particular, for regions, where renewable energy sources form considerable share of all electricity generation capacity. In such regions, hydrogen combined with large-scale underground storage can be a key for stable and timely energy deliveries, as well as balancing out the impacts of variable renewable energy sources. Apart from hydrogen storage in existing natural gas grids and on-ground storage facilities, there are three general options for hydrogen underground storages in future, and all of them coincide with options available for the natural gas storage today. This article overviews hydrogen underground storage options theoretically available in the EU and worldwide, bring forward a few challenging points in hydrogen underground storage development, and outlines the Latvian underground hydrogen storage potential. Economic feasibility studies and technical evaluation is planned to be carried out in the following researches.