Picture this scenario: Industrial plants and power stations across Spain, Portugal and other parts of Europe are running at full tilt as their contracted volumes of green hydrogen feedstock arrive as ordered via pipeline network and trucks.  

Then the power supply trips. Iberia’s fleet of electrolysers, which feed much of the continent, grinds to a halt and suppliers scramble to tap into storage, paying hefty premiums to secure product for their customers. Power plants temporarily switch to run on natural gas, but some other hydrogen-reliant industrial process are halted, damaging components and wrecking supply schedules in sectors such as steel.

Yes, pure fiction, and an over-simplification. In reality, many green hydrogen plants will have back-up generators, maybe running on fossil fuels, while others will be wired into on-site generation. Some will also maintain short-term storage that can step into fill the gap if the main electrolysers go down. 

However, Spain’s unprecedented blackout in late April must serve as a reminder of the need to de-risk green hydrogen supply lines operating in a heavily electrified European economy. Spain’s grid lost 15GW of  generation in just five seconds, taking out 60% of electricity demand. In a future hydrogen economy, that scale of outage would have knocked out gigawatts of electrolyser capacity at a stroke and in some cases put damaged stacks out of action for an extended period.  

The post-mortem on Spain’s power meltdown will take months, and the particulars of the Spanish and Portuguese grids may be blamed. But policymakers, grid operators and power consumers such as green hydrogen producers across the continent should take note because the race to intermittent renewables means it will probably not be a one-off. 

The reality is that the development of power grids is lagging the deployment of renewable power and the demand load of wider electrification.  

Safety in storage

The green hydrogen sector can help to mitigate its own risks by developing storage capacity at scale. Germany has realised that its vast network of salt caverns has big potential. 

The country operates about 250 salt caverns to store oil and natural gas, mainly in the north of the country. The relative proximity of these caverns to coastal regions, and thus offshore windfarms and green hydrogen production sites, as well as possible import routes, make them an especially attractive for storage option for hydrogen. 

This is all well and good, but building a cushion of hydrogen storage large enough to protect future supplies, as well as meeting seasonal demand swings, is dependent on the rapid development of coherent regulation and the maturing of technology to a degree that will reassure investors. 

As of today, the development  of storage, power grids, and renewable generation looks out of step and in need of some serious rewiring. 

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Author: Stuart Penson