Work Package 1

Public Engagement, Societal and Legal Viability, Risks and Benefits 

The objective of this work package is to investigate and implement actions required to establish environmental, social, legal and market conditions for deployment of underground hydrogen storage in Europe. Experiences gained from the demonstrator in Rubensdorf will be used to 1.) identify crucial environmental, social and legal factors for the successful implementation of UHS projects in partner countries (Hungary, Netherlands and Spain), taking into account country-specific circumstances and differences, and 2.) to establish best practice guidelines for future projects across Europe. For this purpose, the proposal will implement (under the scientific leadership of TNO and EIL, both having strong expertise in social science studies) a systematic approach to assess the societal embeddedness level in each partner country and to identify requirements (milestones in each societal dimension) to establish the non-technical conditions for successful deployment of UHS. 

The work in this package will be strongly interconnected with findings from WP 3 on demonstration site operations and, additionally, on results from WP 5 on strategies how to integrate hydrogen storage facilities into the local, national and European energy infrastructures. Reproducibility of the UHS experiences to other involved countries (Task 1.3) will be interlinked with respective activities in WP 4 (Tasks 4.4 - 4.6) Interactions with stakeholders within WP1 will be interrelated with activities of WP 6, especially Task 6.2 “Stakeholder engagement”. Risk-based plans for measurement, monitoring and verification developed within the WP 2 will be implemented into the stakeholder communication activities addressing safety and environmental concerns.