Assessment of underground energy storage potential to support the energy transition in the Netherlands

Abstract

With the Paris Climate Agreement, the world faces the important task of reducing CO2 emissions to 95% below 1990 levels in 2050. In the Netherlands various measures are being designed for this task, including a transition from fossil fuels towards clean and sustainable energy sources, implmentation of energy saving and efficiency measures, and Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CCUS). Underground storage can play an important role in delivering solutions. The subsurface is probably the best place for the temporal storage of vast amounts of various forms of energy and the only space for permanent storage of large volumes of CO2. The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate commissioned in 2018 a technical assessment on the various options for underground storage in the Netherlands. The technologies investigated were those that can support the large-scale increase of renewables, secure energy supply, and can be implemented in the subsurface (depths >500 m) and deployed within the next 10-30 years. This paper presents part of the results showing the large potential storage capacity for natural gas (1939 Twht) and hydrogen (456 Twht) in depleted gas fields, and natural gas (184TWht), hydrogen (43 TWht) and compressed air (0.58 TWh) in salt caverns.