Australia is exploring the potential of vast underground caverns for large-scale energy storage, a development that could significantly advance the country’s transition to renewable energy sources. The project addresses a key challenge in utilizing intermittent power generation – what to do with excess electricity produced by solar and wind farms when demand is low.
Currently, large lithium-ion batteries are used to store surplus energy for later use, but these systems are expensive, environmentally impactful, and offer limited storage duration – typically only a few hours. Researchers are now investigating a more sustainable and long-term solution beneath the surface.
A $31 million (approximately $9.9 billion Hungarian Forint) drilling project, conducted by the government-run Geoscience Australia, has revealed promising geological formations in the Adavale Basin. The basin, first identified in 1958, remained largely unexplored due to its hidden nature – it lies beneath the Eromanga and Galilee Basins with no surface indicators. In November 2025, the project reached a depth of 3 kilometers, extracting a continuous 976-meter core sample.
The focus of the investigation is the Boree salt deposit. Scientists believe that dissolving the rock salt with water could create extensive underground caverns suitable for energy storage. Mitchell Bouma, director of Geoscience Australia, told ABC News that the caverns could potentially store both hydrogen and compressed air.
The hydrogen would be sourced from renewable energy, allowing for its recapture and reuse in green energy production. Researchers estimate a single cavern within the Adavale Basin could store 6,000 tons of hydrogen, equivalent to approximately 100 GWh of energy – a capacity comparable to Australia’s 50 largest grid-scale batteries combined.
According to estimates, a network of these caverns could store enough energy to meet the daily needs of 20 million households. This development could be a significant step towards Australia achieving net-zero emissions, though It’s not expected to fully replace surface-level battery storage.
The potential for large-scale, long-duration energy storage is a critical component of the global shift towards renewable energy, as nations grapple with the challenges of intermittency and grid stability.
