Solutions for large-scale and long-duration storage of energy is rapidly moving from within the engine room of the existing energy systems and into the frontline of the green transition. This is because – when we get things right – physical large-scale energy storage is a capability of any energy system that effectively promotes and accelerates all three elements of the trilemma.

• Greener – Utility scale energy storage stabilizes otherwise increasingly unstable power grids, thereby allowing for even more intermittent renewable power production to be encompassed into the system. It makes the use of the existing electricity transmission infrastructure more efficient, thereby reducing scope and complexity in the build-out of the electricity grids in an ever more electrified world.
  And large-scale flexible supply chains for green hydrogen and biogene CO2 will become key components in the indirect electrification of the otherwise hard-to-abate industry sectors such as heavy goods transport, shipping and aviation.

• Safer – Energy policy is also security policy. Strategic oil and fuel reserves; vast underground natural gas storages; water reservoirs in those countries where nature allows this; stockpiles of coal and woodchips at every thermal powerplant. Strategic energy reserves are a fundamental capability of any energy system, but most of the known solutions are disappearing as we transform our energy systems to fit a low carbon future. Solutions for strategic storage of wind and solar is the most acutely needed piece of the puzzle for a future sustainable and secure energy system.

• Cheaper – Energy storage very simply enables societies in times of scarcity and high prices to consume renewable energy that was produced at a time where wind and sun was abundant and prices therefore were low. Energy storage makes energy cheaper directly for those that have put energy in stock when prices were low, and it has a dampening effect on highly fluctuating energy prices for everyone else.

 

From Single-Commodity Natural Gas Storage to Multi-Commodity Energy Storage

In Gas Storage Denmark we intend to lead this future by setting the trails for transforming from a classic single-commodity gas storage to a new, multi-commodity energy storage.

Future energy systems will encompass a variety of technologies for energy storage and just as many different business models driving them. We believe no one technology or business model will rule them all. We need to apply all the solutions out there to meet the climate ambitions.

In Gas Storage Denmark we specifically bring underground energy storage solutions to the table. Underground energy storage is what we do and have been doing for more than 30 years and the expertise we hold within this field is unique and second- to-none in Denmark. The underground storage technologies provide solutions for large-scale and long-duration energy storage, a part of the renewable energy storage market, which until now has been largely uncontested.

We are therefore pioneering the development and commercialization of underground green hydrogen storage, underground carbon storage and underground compressed air storage, as we gradually adapt our methane operations over the coming years.

 

Partnerships & Integrated Value Chains – Acceleration & Innovation

The energy industry works in long, serially connected value chains. If just one element in the chain fails, the entire value chain fails. For this reason we have chosen to work within a design based co-creation project framework that focuses on acceleration of the entire value chains for Power-to-X and Carbon Capture & Storage.
We do what we can to create something new, something greater than the sum of its individual parts.