Deep Storage, High Stakes: Europe’s Hydrogen Drive

Cavern storage projects aim to prove hydrogen can be both clean and reliable for Europe's industry

20 Aug 2025

Europe's effort to make hydrogen central to its energy mix is moving from pilot projects to heavy engineering. Underground salt caverns, once used for natural gas, are being reimagined as the vaults of a future hydrogen economy.

In August Uniper, a German utility, unveiled plans to convert 13 caverns in Cheshire into dedicated hydrogen stores. With a potential capacity of some 400 gigawatt-hours, the site would be among the continent's largest. Developed with British Salt, it signals a shift: storage is no longer an afterthought but the keystone for scaling hydrogen use. At the European level, the EU-backed FrHyGe programme is pushing similar schemes, highlighting hydrogen's dual role in cutting emissions and bolstering energy security.

Cavern storage has attractions. It can stockpile vast volumes for weeks or months, evening out the fits and starts of wind and solar. That steadiness may reassure heavy industry such as steel, chemicals and cement that green hydrogen can rival the dependability of natural gas.

The race is as corporate as continental. Firms that can stitch together production, storage and distribution will shape Europe's market. Policymakers, too, want cavern storage written into national blueprints and cross-border grids to keep supply chains both secure and flexible.

Yet the obstacles are weighty. Suitable geology is rare; permitting is slow; upfront costs are large, just as capital is being tugged towards rival solutions such as batteries. Even so, hydrogen remains unusually well suited to decarbonising industries that cannot easily electrify.

Momentum is hard to miss. Uniper casts Cheshire as the hub of a wider hydrogen cluster. Consortia across Europe are lining up copycat projects. As they mature, cavern storage looks less like an experiment and more like the mechanism that could fix hydrogen firmly at the core of Europe's future energy system.