Power to Gas Research Roadmap

The increasing levels of renewable generation bring challenges for our existing energy systems. Their variability means that they rarely provide just the amount of energy needed at any moment. Indeed at peak levels of production, wind power output is already being curtailed due to the limited capacity of the electricity grid, and the difficulty of storing electricity. Investment levels of hundreds of billions of euros in our electricity transport and storage infrastructure have been proposed to meet this challenge. However there is another, potentially lower cost solution. The enormous existing capacity of our gas networks can be used to store this excess energy, my turning the excess renewable electricity to synthetic natural gas or hydrogen. This article discusses this concept and suggests a route through the technical challenges that we face to make it happen.