Key Considerations for Evaluating Underground Hydrogen Storage (UHS) Potential in Five Contrasting Australian Basins

Hydrogen gas can provide baseload energy as society decarbonizes through the energy transition. Underground Hydrogen Storage (UHS) will be secure, convenient and scalable to accommodate excess hydrogen production or compensate temporary shortfalls in energy supply. Hydrogen is a gas under all viable subsurface conditions, so is invasive, mobile and low-density. Methane and CO2 are also stored underground but storage parameters differ for each, affecting the balance of geological storage risks. UHS in Australia is most likely to utilise conventional sedimentary reservoir rocks bound by conventional trapping closures. Hydrogen energy density will affect the competitiveness of UHS against purpose-built surface storage or solution-mined salt cavities. This study presents an overview of key considerations when screening for UHS opportunities and evaluates them for five Australian sedimentary basins. A threshold storage depth mapped across them reveals that the most prospective UHS basins will have to function as integrated energy fluid resource systems.