This document proposes some “Directions for Guidelines on the geological storage of hydrogen” that can be applied to the underground storage of hydrogen, both pure and mixed with natural gas.
The need to draw up such directions arises from the need to fill the lack of regulatory references necessary for the development of the hydrogen supply chain, with particular reference to its underground storage, as part of the energy transition.
During the three-year research period 2019-2021, the activities carried out in this sense included a bibliographic survey of the current national legislation on hydrogen, a framework of the international and European initiatives underway to encourage the development of the supply chain (and storage in underground) as well as the research of ongoing activities on the national territory with respect to the general context.
From the outcomes of the first year of activity (2019) a fragmented regulation has emerged: the topic of geological storage of hydrogen is not currently regulated by specific legislation in force.
Over the last year (2020), from the comparison with the regulations of similar supply chains (treatment of explosive substances, storage of natural gas and carbon dioxide) some “regulatory foundations” could be defined for the drafting of directions for the issuing of guidelines on the geological accumulation of hydrogen in this last year of activity (2021).
The directions begin with the definition of the object, purpose, and areas of application of the Guidelines, and subsequently deal with various topics: the usefulness of creating a national inventory of sites potentially suitable for the geological storage of hydrogen; the definition of a possible authorization path, the possible structure for the authorization for the exploration phase of an area, the aspects relating to the storage concession; the provision of some references for on-site monitoring of microseismicity, ground deformations, and pore pressures; aspects of social acceptability. Finally, the document provides the main regulatory references consulted and updated to 2021.
These Directions for Guidelines on the geological storage of hydrogen are drawn up on the basis of the results of the research activities conducted in the three-year period in which this topic was addressed for the first time; therefore, they do not claim to be transposed as such into national legislation.