In Upper Austria, a novel combined heat and power plant (CHP) is now operational, utilizing green hydrogen from an underground pore storage facility. The project demonstrates how excess solar energy can be stored for winter demand.
In Gampern, Upper Austria, gas storage operator RAG Austria AG has commissioned a hydrogen combined heat and power plant (CHP) with a capacity of 1 MW at the start of the 2024 heating season. According to the manufacturer Innio Group, this is the first facility of its kind in Europe. The hydrogen used was produced in summer using solar energy and stored in an underground pore storage facility, from where it is now used for energy supply in winter.
Since June 2024, the hydrogen power plant has been supplying RAG Austria's site in Gampern with electricity and heat from green hydrogen. A neighboring electrolysis plant produces the energy carrier in summer using solar energy. The gas is then stored in the first underground pore storage hydrogen facility in Rubensdorf near Gampern.
The storage can hold excess solar power with a volume of up to 4.2 GWh in the form of hydrogen - an amount of energy equivalent to the production of 1,000 PV systems in single-family home size during one summer. During the cold season, the Innio CHP uses the stored hydrogen to generate electricity and heat for the local needs of the operational site.
Seasonal Energy Storage for Sustainable Supply
This concept addresses one of the challenges of the energy transition: the seasonal storage of solar power surpluses from summer for winter demand. The facility also demonstrates the gradual substitution of natural gas with hydrogen for year-round electricity generation. Andreas Kunz, CTO of Innio Group, comments: "We are showing how the decarbonization of communities and industrial sites can be implemented."
RAG CEO Markus Mitteregger explains in a press release dated October 14: "The Jenbacher technology allows us to decouple the generation of renewable energy from its consumption, thereby ensuring year-round security of supply."
In the Linz region, about 80 km away, RAG Austria has been operating a larger pilot project for hydrogen storage in pore storage facilities since the beginning of the year. An expanded version of the Gampern plant is planned here: hydrogen from summer production is to supply a district heating power plant and the associated infrastructure. RAG claims to have been the first operator worldwide to store hydrogen seasonally and on a large scale in depleted natural gas reservoirs. With the EUH2STARS project, the company now plans to investigate the conversion of natural gas storage facilities for hydrogen use as well as the construction of new storage facilities on a larger scale.
