04.05.2021
Gas storage facilities are of great significance for the energy transition. Considering future developments, the members of the Initiative Erdgasspeicher (INES) have taken important decisions on their assembly in April. INES’ statutes now allow for hydrogen storage companies to become members of the association. Moreover, STORAG ETZEL was welcomed as a new INES member.
Gas and hydrogen storage facilities will play an important role in future energy systems. Renewable Gases in gas and hydrogen storage are the only option to store clean energies in large volumes and for longer periods of time. Gas storage facilities installed in Germany account for a combined capacity of 270 terawatt hours of natural gas. The same storage volume for hydrogen corresponds to a theoretical capacity of 90 terawatt hours. “Gas storage facilities balance increasing fluctuations in the energy system and therefore secure a carbon-neutral energy supply,” said Sebastian Bleschke, Management Director of INES.
Taking into account these developments, INES members have taken a game-changing decision in April. A change in the statutes of the association now allows hydrogen storage companies to become INES members as well. “Our member firms work at full speed to adapt their business models to the demands of a carbon-neutral energy system,” Sebastian Bleschke commented. “We want to transform this development structurally into our association.”
In several projects, INES members research and test possibilities to store hydrogen in underground facilities and thereby support the hydrogen market run-up in Germany. Against this background, INES is happy to announce its newest member: STORAG ETZEL. The company builds, operates and rents underground storage capacities for oil and gas, and cooperates with EKB Storage – another INES member – in a project to investigate large-volume hydrogen storage as well.
„INES is a pivotal hub for the future hydrogen economy. We are glad to be bringing in our expertise and working together towards future perspectives from now on,” comments Boris Richter, CEO at STORAG ETZEL, joining INES.
The German government as well as the European Commission have realized that facilitating and creating a hydrogen economy is an important political task for the next years. INES and its members will be continuing to accompany this process closely and actively. “Gas storage system operators adapt to the requirements of the energy transition in a technical way,” explains Sebastian Bleschke. “The appropriate legal and regulatory framework, however, has to be developed by politicians. Only then, we will be able to set our course of transformation in such a way that transforming today’s gas storage facilities into green gas storages.”