Life cycle assessment of conversion processes for the large-scale underground storage of electricity from renewables in Europe

Abstract

This study estimates the total storage capacity for renewable energies in European salt caverns up to the year 2030 in order to deal with the fluctuation of renewable energies. The round-trip efficiencies and the CO2 equivalent direct emissions of the different storage process stages are taken into account. These are transmission, electricity to gas conversion, storage and re-electrification from gas to electricity, of three different energy carriers, namely compressed air, hydrogen and renewable methane.