Kinsale field offshore Ireland under review for green hydrogen storage

ESB and dCarbonX have initiated the Green Hydrogen Kinsale project to develop large-scale storage for green hydrogen off the coast of County Cork, southern Ireland.

The development could potentially store up to 3 TWh of green hydrogen and hydrogen carriers, equivalent to 10% Ireland’s current annual electricity consumption.

Earlier this year the partners commissioned an evaluation of the depleted Kinsale gas field reservoir, originally developed by Marathon Oil, to assess the potential for large-scale storage of green hydrogen.

Studies since have focused on subsurface analysis, mineralogy, capacity modelling, injection and withdrawal rates, compression, drilling evaluation, well design, retention assurance, monitoring, electrolysis and infrastructure tie-ins.

This is also ESB/dCarbonX’s latest project following their partnership announcement to identify and develop subsea energy storage offshore opportunities in Ireland.

ESB operates across the country’s electricity sector, from generation, through transmission and distribution to the supply of customers, with an expanding presence also in the UK’s power generation market.

dCarbonX is a subsidiary of GeoEnergy, formed to develop subsurface hydrogen storage, carbon sequestration and geothermal baseload assets to facilitate the energy transition, and based in London and Dublin.

Dr John O’Sullivan, COO of dCarbonX, said: “The Kinsale Head reservoirs hosted safe, secure and reliable offshore natural gas subsurface energy storage for many years, underpinning Ireland’s security of gas supply.”

He continued: “As subsurface lead for the original natural gas storage development, the dCarbonX and ESB partnership is optimally positioned to repurpose and develop these reservoirs for green hydrogen storage. Kinsale Head is the third Irish offshore location which we are assessing with ESB for green hydrogen storage.”

Source: Offshore Magazine