Establishing a system that uses wind generated electricity to produce and store renewable hydrogen could help reduce the total number of UK wind farms needed in 2050 by more than 75%.
“A System For All Seasons” analysed Britain’s electricity generation and consumption trends and found that renewable hydrogen produced by wind farms and stored in disused oil and gas fields will “reduce the need for the total electricity generating capacity of UK wind farms from 500-600GW by 2050 down to 140-190GW”.
Renewable hydrogen produced by wind farms and stored in disused oil and gas fields can also help avoid future winter energy supply crunches in the UK, the report, published by Energy Networks Association (ENA), highlighted.
“A System For All Seasons” concluded that the UK’s wind and solar farms will have enough spare electricity generated in spring and summer, when demand is lower, to produce green hydrogen to the equivalent capacity of 25 Hinkley Point C nuclear power plants.
The hydrogen stored would provide the same amount of energy needed for “every person in the UK to charge a Tesla Model S electric vehicle more than 21 times”, in the autumn and winter months when energy demand is highest, ENA’s study stated.
This would create a “clean energy buffer” that avoids having to manage limited energy supplies on the international markets.
The research calculated that the UK has enough capacity to store the hydrogen in a combination of salt caverns and disused oil and gas fields in the North Sea, as well other locations, to meet this demand.
Converting surplus renewable electricity into green hydrogen means avoiding curtailing output, while meeting energy demand. Under the alternative scenario, additional wind farms would need to be built to accommodate for autumn and wind energy demand peaks but be left unused during other times of the year.
With 140-190GW of wind generation capacity, 115 to 140 terawatt hours of green hydrogen would be stored, the report found.
The potential storage volume from Britain’s salt fields ranges from >1TWh up to 30TWh and for disused oil and gas fields, the potential storage volume for individual sites ranges from 1TWh up to 330TWh.
Chris Train, ENA’s green gas champion, said: “This research shows how green hydrogen can provide a clean energy bumper that can protect us from fluctuations on the international energy markets, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year – whatever the weather, come rain or sunshine.
“It will also allow us to get the most out of the energy infrastructure that is at the forefront of our renewable revolution, whilst ensuring that we have a net zero energy system that is truly a System For All Seasons.”