European Hydrogen Backbone sees enough supply to surpass EU 2030 targets

The European Hydrogen Backbone initiative has identified more than enough renewable hydrogen supply that is planned to come online by 2030 to meet the EU's domestic production goals.

The EHB, a group of 31 energy infrastructure operators, said in a May 31 report it had identified 12 million mt/year of EU green hydrogen production that could start up by 2030, surpassing the EU's target of 10 million mt/year of production by then.

The EU is also targeting a further 10 million mt/year of imports by 2030.

The EHB identified 5.4 million mt/year of potential supply from countries neighboring the EU, for a total of 17.4 million mt/year of regional supply.

That is in excess of the 14.7 million mt/year of demand the group sees by the end of the decade.

However, the EHB noted that demand would rise further, spurred by the European Commission's REPowerEU plans, that target a 75% renewable share for hydrogen in industry and a 5% share in the transport fuel mix.

Supply corridors

The report, "Five hydrogen supply corridors for Europe in 2030," focuses on the regional sources of green hydrogen, and supply routes.

It sees Central Europe as a significant importer, with large surpluses of supply particularly from North Sea countries and Southern Europe and North Africa.

The five envisaged pipelines connect these supply centers to Central Europe.

Corridor A, including North Africa and Southern Europe, would transport low-cost green hydrogen from Tunisia and Algeria through Italy to Central Europe, using existing gas infrastructure. It could also decarbonize industries along the route in Italy, Central Europe and Germany.

Corridor B, through Southwest Europe and North Africa, would connect green hydrogen supplies from the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa to supply storage facilities in France. It could supply industry and transport across Portugal, Spain, France and Germany.

Corridor C from the North Sea would supply hydrogen from offshore wind farms as well as blue hydrogen facilities planned in countries in the region with carbon capture and storage capabilities. Demand is focused around industrial clusters and ports in the UK, Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.

Corridor D, which encompasses the Nordic and Baltic regions would connect onshore and offshore wind to hydrogen production, serving steel, fertilizer, chemical and fuel producers in the region, as well as Poland and Germany.

And Corridor E would connect Romania, Greece and Ukraine to Central Europe and Germany, tapping into the region's land availability and potential for wind and solar.

Unlocking potential

The EHB stressed that new and repurposed hydrogen infrastructure would need to be developed to meet the EU's targets and the hydrogen network ambitions.

It called for incentives to stimulate hydrogen demand, and flexibility in regional regulations to unlock financing for hydrogen infrastructure.

Simplified and shortened planning and permitting procedures would also help, it said, along with the accelerated deployment and integration of renewables.

The European Commission proposed a raft of actions May 18 when it outlined details of its REPowerEU package to diversify its supplies of energy away from Russia and to accelerate the expansion of clean energy.

These included faster permitting procedures for renewables and associated infrastructure such as power grids.

The EHB plans to build a network of 28,000 km of dedicated hydrogen pipelines by 2030, expanding to 53,000 km across 28 European countries by 2040.

Around 60% of the network is expected to be made up of repurposed natural gas infrastructure, with the remaining 40% being new pipelines.

The EHB sees the cost of transporting hydrogen at 11-21 euro cent/kg (12-23 cents/kg) per 1,000 km by 2040.

Platts Analytics sees green hydrogen production costs of around $3/kg in Germany by 2030.

S&P Global Commodity Insights assessed the cost of producing renewable hydrogen via alkaline electrolysis in Europe at Eur10.64/kg ($11.41/kg) May 31 (Netherlands, including capex), based on month-ahead power prices.