Sign in Subscribe
Renewable energy

Large-Scale Hydrogen Storage System Offers Technical and Economic Advantages

Strategic Insights

— 1 min read

Researchers at Huazhong University of Science and Technology have developed a large-scale hydrogen storage system that can be integrated into solar-wind-storage power systems to address the challenge of cross-seasonal mismatch between power supply and demand in high proportion renewable energy generation systems. The system utilizes salt cavern for large-scale hydrogen storage, complementing battery and thermal energy storage to achieve multitime scale power regulation. The results show that when power supply reliability is extremely high, the integration of low-cost and large-scale salt cavern hydrogen storage can significantly reduce the installed capacities of power generation and energy storage devices, thereby reducing the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) and improving power consumption ability.

Key Takeaways:

  • The research utilized salt cavern for large-scale hydrogen storage, complementing battery and thermal energy storage to achieve multitime scale power regulation.
  • The optimal combination and capacity parameters of the system were obtained through multi-objective optimization of LCOE, loss of power supply probability (LPSP), and curtailed power amount.
  • Results showed that the integration of low-cost and large-scale salt cavern hydrogen storage can significantly reduce the installed capacities of power generation and energy storage devices.
  • The LCOE of the proposed system was $0.244/kWh, which is $0.216/kWh lower than the system with hydrogen tanks, demonstrating a huge economic advantage.
  • The annual curtailed power can be reduced by 76% under tri-objective optimization.
  • The research concluded that accelerating the reduction of unit investment costs for electrolyzer and fuel cell is particularly important.

Statistics:

  • The LCOE of the proposed system was $0.244/kWh.
  • The system with hydrogen tanks had an LCOE of $0.460/kWh.
  • The system without hydrogen devices had an LCOE of $0.299/kWh.
  • The annual curtailed power can be reduced by 76% under tri-objective optimization.
  • The integration of low-cost and large-scale salt cavern hydrogen storage can significantly reduce the installed capacities of power generation and energy storage devices.

Sources:

  • Integration of a Salt Cavern for Large-scale Hydrogen Storage Into a Solar-wind-storage Power System: Technical and Economic Advantages. Applied Energy, 2025;393.
  • Elsevier Sci Ltd, 125 London Wall, London, England. (Elsevier - www.elsevier.com; Applied Energy - www.journals.elsevier.com/applied-energy/)
  • Hong Yao, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, School of Energy and Power Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Coal Combustion, Wuhan 430074, People's Republic of China.

Read more