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RWE to start marketing free capacity in Gronau-Epe H2 storage facility

RWE Gas Storage West GmbH (RGSW) is starting to market free storage capacity in the H2 storage facility currently under construction at the Gronau-Epe site in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. For this, RGSW launched a binding tender. The tender is aimed at companies that want to secure available storage capacity for H2 from 1 January 2028.

Construction work on Germany's first commercial H2 storage facility is already underway. RWE will fill the first cavern with H2 from mid-2026. At the same time, H2 will be used to press the brine out of a second cavern so that it can also be used for storage. Once completed, the storage facility with its two caverns will have an injection and withdrawal capacity of 50,000 m3 per hour and a working gas volume of around 38 MMm3. Around 70% of this has already been marketed. Commercial storage operations will start on July 1, 2027.

The current tender is for the 30% storage capacity that will not be available until 2028 for technical reasons. In a market survey in spring 2025, RGSW asked potential customers about their requirements. The findings have been incorporated into the tender.

Transport and storage infrastructure will play a key role in the ramp-up of the H2 economy: storage facilities help to buffer fluctuations in H2 production from wind and solar energy. This will enable H2 produced in the future to be made available to industrial customers as needed.

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