£1billion off UK energy bills: Centrica’s North Sea hydrogen storage plans

How a big underground battery could solve the UK’s energy woes

What do you do when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun refuses to shine? You need something clever – a way to store energy when there’s too much of it and release it when there’s not enough.

Well there’s one solid solution and that is a little element is hydrogen: often called the Swiss Army knife of energy.

A new report from Centrica and FTI Consulting suggests that large-scale hydrogen storage, specifically at sites like the Rough gas storage facility under the North Sea, could cut energy costs for UK billpayers by a staggering £1billion every year by 2050.

That sounds good to me, as I’m sure it does for you. But we’re going to need to get serious about infrastructure, regulation, and investment if we want to make it happen.

The problem with renewable energy

The UK is leading the charge on renewables – wind farms everywhere, solar panels galore. But there is a bit of a catch – renewable energy is fantastic… until it’s not.

Too much energy when you don’t need it, and not enough when you do.

The report paints a pretty wild picture: by 2050, we could see swings in renewable electricity generation of up to 100 GW in a single day – that’s the output of more than 30 Hinkley Point Cs!

And then there’s the surplus: 15% of the time, we’ll have more renewable energy than we know what to do with.

Without a way to capture that excess, it’s like chopping down a tree, then leaving the firewood to rot.

Hydrogen, however, has a solution: store that energy surplus as gas, then turn it back into electricity when it’s needed. A giant, invisible battery buried underground – clever, eh?

Rough gas storage into hydrogen

Where are you going to store that energy you may ask? As everyone is aware, we’re trying to wean ourselves off natural gas. 

As a nation we always have a surplus of gas ready to go at any point, to bolster our energy security, and in case of emergencies – like, for instance, when someone decides to cause ‘mischief’ at the bottom of the Baltic Sea…

We have one such place out in the North Sea, called Rough. It’s currently the UK’s largest gas storage site, handling about 50% of the nation’s gas storage capacity.

Now that we are binning off Putin’s gas, Centrica wants to turn Rough into the world’s largest hydrogen storage facility, and they’re ready to put up £2billion to make it happen.

Chris O’Shea, Centrica’s boss, sums it up, saying:

“Hydrogen will be crucial to managing intermittency. With the right government framework, we can unlock £2billion of investment to transform Rough into the energy system of the future.”

If this had been up and running during the recent energy price crunch, Centrica say it could have saved UK households a cool £5billion.

An underground superhighway for hydrogen

But it’s not just about storage, of course, you have to move it about to where it’s needed, too. 

Hydrogen can be stored in places like Rough for the long haul, or in salt caverns along the coastline for short-term surges, but getting it where it needs to go is the next puzzle piece.

Centrica’s plan is to turn the UK’s existing network of underground gas pipes into a hydrogen “superhighway”.

No extra eyesores of overhead power lines snaking across the countryside; just clean, efficient pipelines whispering away beneath our feet – the way they already have for decades.

This setup would mean less wasted energy, fewer above-ground infrastructure costs, and more stability in the grid. Genius.

A £1billion lifeline for billpayers

The numbers don’t lie: hydrogen storage is a financial no-brainer. By 2050, we’re talking £1billion a year in energy savings, all while creating a grid that can handle the ups and downs of renewable energy.

One thing that’s often overlooked is the cost of dismantling the natural gas network when we’ve weaned ourselves off it.

Or the colossal infrastructure costs involved in upgrading our electric grid – costs that are only going to come out of the pockets of you and me when we turn the lights on.

Let’s use what we already have and make the most of it – cheaply, efficiently, and securely.

Now what?

All eyes are now on regulators and policymakers. Centrica’s ready to go. The tech exists. The need is clear. But without a stable investment framework, the whole thing risks getting bogged down in bureaucracy.

So, the question is: will the UK give hydrogen the green light it needs for the future?