# The Potential for the Use of Hydrogen Storage in Energy Cooperatives
###### Abstract
Although the use of hydrogen for energy storage is not yet common due to the high costs and energy losses associated with it (currently estimated at about 60% in the so-called \"full cycle\") [21; 22], the development of hydrogen technologies as well as the gradual introduction of instruments reducing the cost of production and use of renewable hydrogen [23] are one of the key challenges of the emerging EU-level legislation on energy production and improving Europe's energy neutrality [8; 24]. With the development of hydrogen storage technologies, we can expect that the cost of building hydrogen storages and their operation will gradually decrease [25], which will contribute to the further development of the RES market; so we will experience a kind of feedback where hydrogen technologies will drive the development of the RES sector, while the further development of the RES sector will support the work on greater efficiency and lower costs of using hydrogen-storage technologies [26]. The implementation of large-scale solutions [27] and the introduction of newer and newer technologies that allow home storage of RES energy in hydrogen storages [28; 29] are already being considered today, not only in terms of entire estates or apartment blocks, but also individual households [30]. The support for the EU hydrogen-strategy implementation and the planned investments in strategic areas for achieving the Green Deal [31] is to be provided by the European Clean Hydrogen Alliance [32], which brings together representatives of industry, civil society, administrations at various levels, and the European Investment Bank (EIB). The Alliance's activities to identify key and feasible investment projects for creating a hydrogen market in the EU were inaugurated by the European Commission in 2020. The European Commission is already supporting the implementation of hydrogen-related projects through the EU's financial instruments, including InvestEU within the framework of the Next Generation EU [33]. The hydrogen economy is expected to be an opportunity to strengthen the EU, as it could directly provide up to a million emerging jobs by 2030 and 5.4 million jobs by 2050 [34]. The US administration is also hoping for job growth based on the development of the hydrogen market [35]. The development of hydrogen technology may also represent an opportunity for regions that are currently heavily dependent on conventional energy sources and will be at the risk of poverty once fossil fuels are phased out; renewable hydrogen's potential to generate jobs is estimated at 10,300 jobs for every billion euros invested [36]. At the same time, various forms of the energy communities are developing in EU countries. In Poland, but also in some other EU countries like Germany, Italy or Denmark [37], they have taken the form of energy cooperatives. These are institutions that enable groups of people or entities to make investments, manage and benefit from joint ownership of RES energy plants and infrastructure, particularly such as photovoltaic panels or wind turbines. The idea behind energy cooperatives is to increase their members' energy independence from large energy corporations (energy producers or distributors) and to increase the share of renewable sources in energy production and distribution. Today, energy cooperatives are still a small segment of the energy market, but their development is promising. In Germany [38] or Denmark [39], energy cooperatives are already very popular and successfully compete on the market. Also in Poland, an increasing number of such local energy communities [40] and social networks [41] are being established; currently more than ten energy cooperatives are waiting to be registered with the court and entered in the register, with a further several dozen in the pipeline.