Costain, the smart infrastructure solutions company, has been awarded the concept development and FEED study for the HyNet project hydrogen storage facility in northwest England by INOVYN, one of the HyNet partners.
The project will play a significant part in enabling the UK’s hydrogen economy by evolving solutions for storing hydrogen at scale.
HyNet will create the UK’s first full chain, integrated low carbon hydrogen supply system of production, distribution network, bulk storage and consumption.
Dave Richardson, decarbonisation solutions director, said: “The project will see the development of a hydrogen storage facility in the southern part of the Holford Brinefield in Cheshire storing up to 1.3 TWh of hydrogen underground in salt cavities.
“Excess hydrogen will be stored here during periods of low demand and discharged onto the network during peak winter periods, balancing supply and demand within the HyNet hydrogen system.”
Costain will undertake an initial concept study to demonstrate the requirements for the import, storage, and export of hydrogen at the facility. This will form the basis of a targeted front end engineering design (FEED) study package for the hydrogen facility.
Rob Phillips, energy sector director said: “Storing hydrogen at scale will be key to unlocking the UK’s potential to become a leading hydrogen economy, recently given the green light by the Government’s Hydrogen strategy.
“Costain is committed to accelerating clean energy growth by decarbonising infrastructure delivery, energy systems and the wide scale deployment of hydrogen and carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies as part of our Climate Change Action Plan.”
HyNet North West is a ground-breaking energy project that will unlock a low carbon future for the North West and North Wales and help to decarbonise multiple sectors of the economy from 2025 onwards. When completed, the HyNet project aims to directly remove over one million tonnes of CO₂ from regional industry and potentially save over 25 million tonnes of carbon each year.
Costain has significant experience in gas storage in Cheshire, having designed and built parts of the two major facilities in the Holford brinefields and supported INOVYN with the Keuper Gas Storage project. The company will bring this experience, along with its hydrogen and networks expertise, to this hydrogen storage project.
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