Eurogas Welcomes New Member: RAG Austria
Stronger together: the central aim is to maintain security of supply of energy and raw materials and the use of scalable climate technologies for reducing emissions.
RAG Austria AG is Austria’s largest energy storage company, and one of Europe’s leading gas storage facility operators. Our business focus is storage, conversion and conditioning of energy in gaseous forms. The company has gas storage capacity of about 6.4 billion cubic metres (bn cu m) of natural gas and a withdrawal capacity of 32GW. In this way RAG is delivering on its vision of “sustainable energy mining”, and decisively reinforcing security of supply in Austria and Europe.
We also develop leading edge energy technologies related to green gas that partner renewable electricity production, in particular “Power-to Gas” solutions based on green hydrogen by which summer electricity can be seasonally stored for energy demand in winter periods. With the real implementation of application technologies such as H2 pipelines and CHP plants and further innovative technologies such as methane pyrolysis, RAG is once again proving to be a driver for the hydrogen ramp-up along the entire value chain and thus also supports the development of a framework for low carbon gases.
This is enabling RAG to play a vital role in attaining Austria’s ambitious climate goals, and in the sustainable management of the country’s raw material and energy supplies. RAG aims to provide its customers with safe, efficient, and affordable energy and gas storage services – sustainably and responsibly.
Underground Hydrogen Storage – large scale power storage for seasonal fluctuations
Building on its forerunner, the Underground Sun Storage program, the Underground Sun Storage 2030 (USS 2030) demonstration project, spearheaded by RAG, is converting solar energy into pure hydrogen by means of water electrolysis in a climate-neutral process. The hydrogen is then stored in an underground porous sandstone gas reservoir. In collaboration with high-profile partners in industry and the Austrian research community, scientific and technical testing are being carried out under real-life conditions at a real underground natural gas reservoir in Gampern, Upper Austria up to 2025. Alongside these testing, the project includes the development of suitable processing techniques, modelling for future energy scenarios, and techno-economic assessments, as well as investigation of various potential applications.
These findings will pave the way for scaling this storage technology. The further EUH2STARS-projects will demonstrate a competitive, complete and qualified underground hydrogen storage (UHS) in depleted porous natural gas reservoirs at technical readiness level by the end of the decade. This European flagship project will not only deal with the building of new or converting existing gas storages into hydrogen storages, but also with pipeline logistics and rapid application options.
RAG Austria joining Eurogas
Like Eurogas, our services and expertise cover the entire value chain of the energy future with gas - which is why we see ourselves as part of Eurogas and want to contribute to the sustainable and climate-friendly development of the gas world. As a community and with the combined strength of our know-how and expertise, we will succeed in making a positive contribution to the energy transition. Natural gas, low carbon gases and in future more green gas as hydrogen will play a key role in the energy mix of the future. The logistics and infrastructure of these energy sources are key to success. Let’s be strong together and successful together for a secure and sustainable energy future.
