The CEOs of the 31 members of the European Hydrogen Backbone initiative have presented a pledge to the European Commission committing to establish hydrogen supply corridors across the EU by 2030.

The EHB consortium envisages five corridors emerging in Europe to connect hydrogen supply with demand. These are known as the Nordic and Baltic, Southwest, North Africa, North Sea, and Southeast supply corridors.

The last three of these routes are consistent with the three major hydrogen corridors identified by the Commission in its RepowerEU package—within which they are referred to as the Mediterranean, North Sea and Ukraine corridors.

€80bn – Estimated lowest cost of EHB

In the pledge, delivered to Rosalinde van der Vlies, director of the Clean Planet Directorate within the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, the EHB members say they “are ready to deliver the hydrogen infrastructure needed to achieve Europe’s 2030 hydrogen targets”.

Those targets include 10mn t/yr of domestic production and 10mn t/yr of imports by 2030.

The pledge also outlines concrete steps needed to ensure the development of each corridor by 2030. These include:

• Allowing different unbundling models across the EU. Unbundling rules prohibit transmission system operators from owning assets for the production or supply of energy;
• Unlocking financing for hydrogen infrastructure deployment by allowing regional regulatory flexibility and incentivising demand-side hydrogen use;
• Simplifying and shortening planning procedures;
• Intensifying energy partnerships with non-EU countries to reduce the cost of capital in export countries and identifying common certifications regimes;
• Facilitating integrated planning of hydrogen, gas and electricity infrastructure.

“The EHB initiative is looking forward to continuing to discuss its vision with stakeholders including policymakers, companies and initiatives along the hydrogen value chain,” says the pledge.

Further ambition

Following the development of the supply corridors, the EHB envisages the hydrogen infrastructure growing to become a pan-European network with a total length of 53,000km by 2040, largely based on repurposed existing natural gas infrastructure.

In a recent report, the EHB published maps showing additional routes that could emerge— including potential offshore interconnectors and pipelines in regions outside areas where the EHB members are active.

The EHB scheme as proposed in that report will by 2040 require an estimated investment of €80-143bn ($85-155bn).

Transporting hydrogen over 1,000km along the proposed onshore backbone would cost an average of €0.11-0.21/kg. For subsea pipelines, the cost would be €0.17-0.32/kg per 1,000 km.

Shipping costs for hydrogen over similar distances are estimated at €0.75-1.5/kg by the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena).

“Even with optimistic assumptions for shipping, pipelines are the most cost‐effective for distances of 1,000km for relatively small projects,” says Irena in a recent report, titled Global Hydrogen Trade to meet the 1.5°C climate goal.

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Author: Tom Young