www.ceotodaymagazine.com 35 THE CEO INTERVIEW will need more underground storage volume in Europe to prevent any unintended energy supply disruptions in a future where hydrogen replaces natural gas. Currently, there are numerous projects related to screening and developing hydrogen storage in salt caverns and porous reservoirs. With each successful pilot more knowledge will be shared and hence paving way for subsequent projects. How do you plan to integrate UEST’s energy storage solutions with wider efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote sustainable energy usage, such as carbon capture and storage (CCS) or usage (CCU)? In UEST we are permanently looking for technologies that will contribute to the UN Sustainable Goals. As such we are technology open-ended and have no bias towards one specific technology. For example, we not only work on projects on green hydrogen and as such, we also are interested to bring in our expertise in CO2 capture, injection, storage and usage projects. We have the capabilities to support projects in multiple areas. The HOT Energy group is having experience in underground storage and the partners – ILF and CAC are able to provide innovative solutions in CO2 transportation and energy infrastructure for Carbon Capture. However, currently there is a lack of CCS enabling legal frameworks in a large part of EU countries. It will be interesting to follow the situation across Europe when CO2 permit prices per tonne exceed 100€ like in the month of Februarythisyear inEurope.Onewouldexpect somereaction and pressure on markets to develop local CCS projects any time soon. One thing to consider is that there appears to be a significant imbalance between CO2 emitting sites and potential CO2 storage sites. In other words, Europe’s largest industrial nations which unsurprisingly emit large volumes of CO2 do not possess equally large storage capacities to store their emitted CO2 within their geographical boundaries. Hence, some significant investment into CO2 infrastructure (transportation and storage) will be required, if CCS shall become a successful technology for reducing greenhouse gas emissions – on top of the above mentioned adoption of legal frameworks. UEST partners have already contributed inmany CCS/CCU industrial projects internationally and are active in jointindustry projects to support development of safe storage and usage solutions for carbon-dioxide. Can you share your thoughts on the future of underground hydrogen storage, and how you plan to ensure that UEST remains at the forefront of this rapidly evolving technology? Underground hydrogen storage will be possible in some of the existing natural gas storage sites. Of course, these
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