Gasunie and Storag Etzel start filling hydrogen caverns
Press release
In German Lower Saxony’s Etzel, the H2CAST pilot project, which involves converting two existing salt caverns for hydrogen storage, is now entering the next phase: Gasunie and Storag Etzel have started jointly injecting around 90 tons of hydrogen into two existing caverns. Gasunie will also start constructing the surface facility in the near future. With the start of the work, the first project phase ‘H2CAST Ready’ was successfully completed, which demonstrated that the caverns and underground materials are suitable for use for underground hydrogen storage. On 9 May 2025, the project initiators Marc van der Linden, Gasunie Business Development Director, and Boris Richter, Managing Director of Storag Etzel, ceremonially launched the works, together with Hester Somsen, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to Germany, Christian Meyer, Lower Saxony’s Minister for the Environment, Energy and Climate Protection, and Olaf Lies, Lower Saxony’s Minister for Economic Affairs, Transport, Construction and Digitalisation.
The first deliveries of renewable hydrogen on behalf of Gasunie have now started and are being implemented by the service provider Plug Power from a production facility in Werlte, Germany, just 90 kilometres south of the Etzel storage facility. A total of around 90 tons of hydrogen will be injected into the two project caverns.
Hydrogen will play an important role in the future energy system, especially in making industry more sustainable. Large-scale hydrogen storage is crucial for an efficiently functioning hydrogen market. In the Netherlands, Gasunie has now started developing underground hydrogen storage facilities in the northern part of the country (HyStock). In the German village of Etzel, Gasunie and Storag Etzel have been working together since 2023 on the H2CAST pilot project, which is a trial to prove the feasibility of storing hydrogen in two existing, immense caverns with a geometric volume of around 300,000 cubic metres. The aim is to develop and operate a flexible underground storage facility with a total capacity of up to 1TWh of hydrogen.
For Gasunie, these milestones are the next step in its ambition to develop hydrogen storage capacity in order to help ensure a smooth start of the hydrogen market in the Netherlands and Germany. The location of the cavern storage facility in Etzel is strategically favourable with a perfect connection route to the German-Dutch hydrogen market, in close proximity to the future hydrogen core network and the energy hub in Wilhelmshaven.
