The only viable candidates for grid-scale electricity storage are Pumped Hydro (which has limited potential for further development), Cryogenic (Liquid Air), Compressed Air and Green Hydrogen.To use this approach, the UK would need an additional 16GW of offshore wind generating capacity (1300 x 12MW turbines) on a typical day. The alternative to large-scale intra-day electricity storage is to have a significant over-supply of renewable electricity generating capacity and to curtail generation at times of low demand.This would still be 18 times the current installed offshore wind capacity. This would require 2,080 x 500,000 m 3 salt caverns operating at 200 bar, deep in the ground under the UK, It would reduce the renewable electricity requirement for heating by a factor of 2 to 193 GW. If green hydrogen is burned in condensing boilers to heat UK homes, then up to 208 TWh of inter-seasonal hydrogen storage would be needed.

Both will have to be supplied at powers in the range 5-8 GW. The UK will need an estimated 65 GWh of intra-day storage and 16 TWh of inter-seasonal storage in the renewable electricity future.In particular, it compares ‘Green Hydrogen’ storage with the available alternatives. This article reviews some of the key issues concerning electricity storage. Due to the variability of renewable electricity (wind, solar) and its lack of synchronicity with the peaks of electricity demand, there is an essential need to store electricity at times of excess supply, for use at times of high demand. (Updated to include inter-seasonal storage requirements for green hydrogen heating.) IntroductionĪ central issue in the low carbon future is large-scale energy storage.

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