Energy is essential anywhere on the planet, whatever its origin or the type of energy to be used, and fortunately, every day more and more people are looking for ways to use energies that are not harmful to the environment. We tell you about the energy that Sweden has discovered and that the whole world wants, so much so that they have decided to build a bunker to protect it.
Energy in the world
In a world in which renewable energies have been gaining prominence in recent years, wind energy, which is provided by the wind, is the most efficient of all because it does not erode the environment, does not pollute and its environmental impact is practically nil.
Wind energy has the capacity to produce energy similar to 1,000 kg of oil, with the great difference that it is not necessary to burn thousands of liters of fuel to obtain it.
What they intend, with this way of storing it, is to keep it as stable as possible even over the years, something complex when we talk about certain renewable energies (this has also happened with hydroelectric power, although there is now a solution).
Hydrogen, the energy that Sweden keeps in a bunker
Although it still has many shortcomings today, hydrogen is gradually becoming a very important element in this energy transition that is leading us more and more towards renewables. The molecule is very useful for decarbonizing industry and heavy transport, as well as for storing energy, and that is where Sweden has decided to go all out to accumulate large quantities of hydrogen in a subway tank.
It seems incredible, but yes, Sweden has built a bunker to accumulate as much hydrogen as possible, which will reduce or replace fossil fuels in both transport and heavy industry. It is also very versatile, since either synthesized from water and electricity or extracted from fossil gas it can be converted indefinitely in one direction or the other.
In the particular case of Sweden and its plans, its hydrogen should enable the decarbonization of the extremely energy-intensive steel industry. That is why the Nordic country will need large quantities of green hydrogen, which cannot be stored in simple tanks, so it has sought the best of options. HYBRIT, the consortium formed by iron ore producer SSAB, Swedish energy company Vattenfall and mining company LKAB, has dug a large subway cavity to store it.
Sweden’s energy bunker at a glance: how everything changes
This Swedish bunker for storing hydrogen, the energy of the future, is located in Lulea in the north of the country, where green hydrogen from renewable resources will be stored under 250 bar pressure in a rock cavern that is lined with a waterproof seal for the best preservation environment. The pilot plant is already completed and has a small volume of only 100 m³, which could be expanded to between 100,000 and 120,000 m³.
The currently available facility can store up to 100 GWh of electricity in the form of hydrogen, which is certainly a large amount of energy and 62 times the capacity of the world’s largest battery. According to the company in charge of the project, this volume can provide 3-4 days of autonomy for a single pre-reduced iron mining production plant.
The Swedes, always with their minds set on the future and in many cases ahead of their time, do not want to miss the opportunity to bet big on the energy that will have a lot to say in the future. Hydrogen has a lot of future but also a lot of present, for example in vehicles that move thanks to this energy.