The solicitation is to fund a project that will evaluate the feasibility of using existing underground gas storage facilities to store clean renewable hydrogen in California.
Donor Name: California Energy Commission (CEC)
State: California
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 06/28/2024
Size of the Grant: More than $1 million
Grant Duration: 3 Years
Details:
This project will develop technical and economic assessments of storing and retrieving hydrogen blends and/or pure hydrogen as well as California-specific decision-making tools, risk mitigation strategies, market and policy recommendations, and community engagement approaches related to those facilities.
Project Focus
Research under this solicitation will support comprehensive technical and economic feasibility assessments of at least two existing underground gas storage facilities in California for their potential to store clean renewable hydrogen. The project is encouraged to assess a selection of geographically diverse sites (i.e., a Northern California site and Southern California site).
The project must meet the following requirements:
- Engage with local communities and Community Based Organizations (CBOs) located around the selected sites for the study and assess the communities’ awareness of and support for underground hydrogen storage. Leverage feedback and learnings from this engagement to inform an experimental design responsive to community interests and concerns. Inform communities of project results and potential impacts of underground hydrogen storage.
- Study the characteristics of two selected sites representing existing underground gas storage facilities in California and conduct experiments to assess potential impacts of introducing hydrogen to the selected sites. Experiments should be inclusive of use cases involving storage as well as retrieval of hydrogen blends and sufficiently pure hydrogen for separation and end-use needs. Proposals for small-scale pilot testing or field experiments are eligible but must include a robust risk mitigation strategy.
- At a minimum, experiments should examine:
- Well integrity including the direct impacts to equipment and mechanical barriers from hydrogen exposure, and the impacts of subsurface environmental and microbial changes following hydrogen injection.
- Deliverability and reservoir dynamics such as permeability, viscosity, injection and withdrawal optimization, and potential hydrogen losses due to leakage, microbial activity, and time-dependent changes in the subsurface environment.
- Necessary mitigation measures (e.g., material selection, inspection tools, operational changes) to ensure safety and reliability.
- Conduct a quantitative risk assessment and techno-economic analysis for converting the selected underground gas storage facilities to store clean renewable hydrogen . This assessment will:
- Compare costs and risks of potential use cases, considering interactions with connected gas infrastructure (e.g., storage and delivery of hydrogen blends, storage of hydrogen blends with separation at the surface, storage and distribution of pure hydrogen).
- Estimate levelized cost of hydrogen storage, levelized total capital costs, and operations and maintenance costs for the selected sites, leveraging existing frameworks such as the Local-Scale Framework for Techno-Economic Analysis of Subsurface Hydrogen Storage, considering California-specific characteristics.
- Develop recommendations for Gas IOUs, CBOs, policymakers, and relevant stakeholders to support decision making on next steps pertaining to the role of underground hydrogen storage in California, which may include additional R&D or demonstrations.
Optional but desired project elements include:
- Compare the levelized cost of hydrogen storage and life-cycle emissions between underground hydrogen storage and alternative storage options like hydrogen carriers and conversion of hydrogen into synthetic methane.
- In addition to studying existing underground gas storage facilities, also examine potential of storing hydrogen in saline aquifers in preferable locations that allow for reuse of existing gas pipeline infrastructure.
Funding Information
There is up to $3,000,000 available for the grant awarded under this solicitation. The minimum funding amount for the project is $2,500,000. The maximum funding amount is $3,000,000.
Grant Period
November 1, 2024 – September 30, 2027.
Eligibility Criteria
This solicitation is open to all public and private entities. Demonstration projects in this solicitation must be located in the service territory of a California gas Investor Owned Utility (Gas IOU), which includes Pacific Gas and Electric Company, San Diego Gas & Electric Company, and Southern California Gas Company. All projects in this solicitation must benefit Gas IOU ratepayers.
For more information, visit CEC.
