H2CAST Etzel
Making energy transition work.
About the project
The H2CAST Etzel project is intended to demonstrate the feasibility of large-volume underground storage of hydrogen and to prove the suitability of the salt caverns in Etzel for hydrogen storage. Operational hydrogen storage operations will be tested and serve to build a hydrogen service industry. H2CAST stands for H2 CAvern Storage Transition, i.e. the conversion of existing caverns and facilities in Etzel for the future necessary storage of hydrogen as a building block for a future energy system.
Watch & learn what H2CAST is about
01.02.2022
31.12.2028
Approx. 90,000 kg
H2 filling completed
1,000,000 m³
Cubic metre hydrogen
3,000,000 kWh
Hydrogen energy content
3,500 m
Underground tubes
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News
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H2CAST Etzel Hydrogen Pilot Project: A recent analysis by project partner DLR shows that the Etzel cavern storage facility can make an indispensable contribution to Germany’s hydrogen supply that supports the energy system
Read moreA analysis by the DLR shows that, with an appropriately expanded storage capacity in northwestern Germany, approximately 88% of Germany’s nationwide…
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Technical article by project partner Gasunie: Large-scale hydrogen storage in salt caverns
Read moreIn Etzel, Lower Saxony, work is underway on a large-scale underground hydrogen storage project using salt caverns, known as the SpHyGer project.
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H2CAST Etzel Project Update – A picture that says more than any figure
Read moreFrom an empty concrete foundation to a fully installed plant with a compressor, drying system and gas purification – all achieved in just a few…
Here you will find the latest news and press releases about the H2CAST ETZEL project as well as our media centre with press material (photos and graphics) for download.
Project Partners
STORAG ETZEL
STORAG ETZEL GmbH are the biggest independent provider of cavern storage capacity in Germany. We are proud to make our contribution to the safety of energy supply and gas grid stability in Germany and Northwestern Europe. At Etzel, East Frisia, we are constructing, operating and leasing caverns for the purpose of bulk storage of crude oil and natural gas since 1971. We want to position the site for the future and make it H2-ready as part of the H2CAST project. The cavern site Etzel is situated on the North German energy hub near Wilhelmshaven, with a connection to the deep water port.
Our customers are well known energy trading companies as well as Europeans stockpiling organizations. A major part of the German oil stockpiling obligation is stored in our caverns here at Etzel. Beyond the currently existing 75 caverns, further storage cavities within the Etzel salt dome can be created in total. There is an expansion potential up to 99 cavern locations.
Gasunie
Gasunie is a European energy-infrastructure company. Gasunie’s network is one of the largest high-pressure pipeline networks in Europe, comprising over 17,000 kilometres of pipeline in the Netherlands and northern Germany. Gasunie provides natural and green gas transport services through its subsidiaries, Gasunie Transport Services B.V. (GTS) in the Netherlands and Gasunie Deutschland in Germany. With its cross-border gas infrastructure and services, Gasunie facilitates TTF, which has become the leading European gas trading point. Gasunie also provides other gas infrastructure services, including gas storage and LNG.
Gasunie wants to help accelerate the transition to a CO2-neutral energy supply and believes that gas-related innovations, for instance in the form of renewable gases such as hydrogen and green gas, can make an important contribution. Both existing and new gas infrastructure play a key role here. Gasunie also plays an active part in the development of other energy infrastructure to support the energy transition.
DEEP.KKB
DEEP.KBB GmbH, based in Bad Zwischenahn and Hannover, is one of the leading service companies in the field of liquid and gaseous hydrocarbon storage in the geological subsurface in Europe. DEEP.KBB has over 50 years of international experience in the field of underground storage. DEEP.KBB is significantly involved in the design, construction and operation of underground storage facilities in salt rock for the storage of natural gas, mineral oil, gas and oil products, as well as storage of renewable energy, especially compressed air and hydrogen. The main focus of DEEP.KBB's services in the underground sector is on the disciplines of geology, rock mechanics, drilling and completion technology, thermodynamics, solution mining, mechanical integrity tests, cavern flooding, gas filling and reservoir engineering.
Deutsche Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR)
The Institute of Networked Energy Systems was incorporated into the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in June 2017. The primary research objective of the three scientific departments Urban and Residential Technologies, Energy System Technologies and Energy Systems Analysis is to ensure the development of technologies and concepts for managing the energy transition. The Institute currently employs around 170 staff at two locations in Oldenburg and Stuttgart.
Hartmann Valves GmbH
Hartmann Valves GmbH is a supplier of special ball valves, wellheads and related service and testing. The medium-sized family-owned company is managed by the third generation and employs 200 people at its German sites in Celle and Burgdorf. Thanks to decades of international experience in the oil & gas, storage technology and (petro)chemical industries, Hartmann Valves is a sought-after pioneering partner for the switch to renewable energies - both in the field of deep geothermal energy and in solutions for applications and underground storage of hydrogen.
TU Clausthal
For more than 30 years, the Chair of Geomechanics and Multi-Physical Systems at Clausthal University of Technology has been working on the stability and tightness of salt caverns for storage of energy raw materials such as natural gas and crude oil, for compressed air energy storage and for brine production. The verification of stability and tightness is based on extensive and complex numerical calculations, in which the caverns and the cavern operation pattern are simulated according to real conditions. The chair has one of the world's most efficient rock physics laboratories with more than 25 triaxial testing facilities for the analysis of the thermal-mechanical-hydraulic coupled material behavior of the rock mass. For the performance of its tasks in research and teaching, the chair has an extensively equipped laboratory (currently 25 rock mechanical testing facilities), a powerful computer pool and various numerical program systems.
SOCON Sonar Control Kavernenvermessung GmbH
SOCON Sonar Control Kavernenvermessung GmbH, based in Giesen (district of Hildesheim), is a globally active service company and specializes in the surveillance of caverns, boreholes and underground cavities using engineering surveying techniques. It has around 80 employees and can look back on over 50 years of experience in the field of echometric cavern surveying. All essential components of the tools, measurement and evaluation systems originate from the company's own research and development department.