HyStock site © Gasunie
The Dutch cabinet will provide €450m ($515m) to state-owned gas operator Gasunie to build a 200,000-tonne underground hydrogen storage facility in Zuidwending.
The cabinet said it would make the funds available to the HyStock project, which aims to construct four underground salt caverns to store large volumes of hydrogen alongside existing natural gas storage.
While the funds will need to be signed off by the House of Representatives, the government said it would prevent storage from being a “weak link” in the hydrogen value chain.
Gasunie has already carried out feasibility tests and studies at the site, with the first cavern expected to be operational around 2031 and will connect to the country’s planned national hydrogen network.
The company is yet to take final investment decision on the site.
By committing the funds, the cabinet statement said it could eliminate risk associated with low fill rates during the site’s first years of operations and any delays due to permitting.
“The realisation of underground hydrogen storage requires a great deal of time: from initial plans to commissioning, it easily takes 10 to 15 years,” the statement said.
“Because the hydrogen market is still in an early phase, parties are currently unable or unwilling to bear these risks entirely independently. That is why the Cabinet is supporting this development precisely now.”
Large-scale storage is seen as critical to Europe’s hydrogen plans, which include large volumes of domestic production and imports which could be fed into cross-border pipelines.
In March, a pilot project in Northwest Germany completed filling a cavern with 90 tonnes of green hydrogen. EWE plans to convert one of its seven in Huntorf, Germany, for hydrogen storage. In 2024, Uniper began salt cavern storage pilot in Krummhörn.
