UK Oil & Gas has announced preliminary project design has been completed for its proposed new underground hydrogen storage facility in Dorset.
The South Dorset Hydrogen Storage project will be made up of 24 salt caverns, 1,330 metres underground, providing up to 1.01 billion standard m3 working hydrogen volume, with hydrogen withdrawal and injection rates meaning a potential technical maximum annual storage capacity of 30.2TWh per year. This means that it could make a substantial dent on the UK’s predicted 2050 annual hydrogen storage demand of 50-100TWh a year.
The design incorporates a “cushion gas” operating scheme which has been used by a number of salt caverns, not just in the UK, but throughout Europe and in the US too. Compared to UKOG’s Portland scheme, it offers a much simpler development and operation than the brine compensation scheme and much lower costs at £800 million – £450 million lower than Portland.
Notably, the South Dorset project is also closer to the planned H2 Connect hydrogen trunk pipeline which is aiming to connect it to the UK hydrogen transmission pipeline system and main hydrogen clusters in the South, East Coast and Northwest.
