This document provides the elements necessary for the definition of a regulatory proposal on underground the storage of hydrogen.
The need for it arises from the request to overcome the lack of regulatory references for the development of the hydrogen supply chain in the context of the energy transition.
The activity included an analysis of the evolution of the European and national context of hydrogen, which highlighted that Italy is also actively participating in the main initiatives on the matter, and has initiated the necessary actions to define priorities and contents for a national hydrogen strategy.
The results obtained in the first year of activity had highlighted the fragmentation of regulations on hydrogen storage, which to date, has never been dealt with directly but only by analogy with other sectors (treatment of explosive substances, storage of natural gas and carbon dioxide) .
Comparison with the regulations of these production chains made possible to identify regulatory gaps and define some indispensable ‘regulatory foundations’ which will flow (2021 activity) into the ‘Directions for guidelines on the geological storage of hydrogen’:
• mapping national options through information sharing, promoting new activities with high safety standards in the identification of sites;
• the definition of a transparent authorisation process in the different phases of issuing the licence, through the involvement of stakeholders;
• the safety of underground storage in relation to the chemical/physical characteristics of the type of fluid injected/delivered into the reservoir, the type of reservoir and possible interactions between them;
• compliance with safety requirements for storage in pipelines (generally included in current regulations), such as connection between underground structures and surface plants;
• monitoring of microseismicity and ground deformations potentially connected to anthropic activities;
• social acceptability, the evaluation of which passes through concrete actions to improve the perception of the activities in question.
In conclusion, this report, through an overview of existing regulations, proposes convergent solutions for hydrogen storage in accordance the identified regulatory foundations, proposing a conceptual scheme for the definition of Guidelines.