• Consortium partners of the hydrogen storage initiative around cavern operator STORAG ETZEL receive funding from the state of Lower Saxony
• Boris Richter (STORAG ETZEL) wants to make the site sustainable and fit for the future
• Project to start in the first quarter of 2022
• Storage of hydrogen for R&D operations in caverns is planned for 2024 following extensive material and safety tests

STORAG ETZEL, together with its consortium partners, receives funding approval for the hydrogen research & development (R&D) pilot project H2CAST Etzel under the Lower Saxony Hydrogen Directive. H2CAST stands for H2CAvern Storage Transition, i.e. the conversion of existing caverns and facilities in Etzel for the storage of hydrogen as a building block for a future energy system.

The corresponding funding notifications were symbolically handed over to the project partners today by Lower Saxony's Environment Minister Olaf Lies in Etzel. The funding scope for research on energy infrastructures and experimental development, SME grants for consulting services as well as for basic research amounts to a total of eight million euros. The industrial partners STORAG ETZEL, DEEP.KBB, Hartmann Valves and SOCON will contribute a multiple of the funding volume to the project.

On the part of research institutions, the project is supported by the Technical University (TU) Clausthal and the German Aerospace Center e.V. (DLR) Institute for Networked Energy Systems.

Quote from Lower Saxony's Minister for the Environment, Energy, Building and Climate Protection, MdL Olaf Lies on funding by the state of Lower Saxony

Energy and Environment Minister Olaf Lies: "Hydrogen will become an integral part of the future energy economy. Without storage facilities, this will not succeed. With H2CAST Etzel, we are funding a pilot project on an industrial scale. A competent and experienced project consortium from industry and science has come together for this purpose. What is special is that for the first time here in Lower Saxony, existing caverns intended for oil and gas storage are to be converted for hydrogen. The intended brine shuttle operation has also not yet been implemented in this way. The pilot project is also the starting point for a possible local value chain. We are creating knowledge that is likely to be in demand elsewhere. With the funding, we are helping to ensure that we will also have a secure energy supply in the future, ultimately without oil and natural gas, and maintain local value creation of the Lower Saxony energy hub."