H2Tech - Q2 2022 - 23

HYDROGEN INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT
In Italy, the use and production of H2
is expected to increase-the Italian Hydrogen
Strategy guidelines published in
2020. Domestic production will ramp
up, and growing demand also creates
the possibility of green H2
imports from
North Africa as early as 2030-subject to
market conditions. This possible import
could be enabled by repurposing given
there are five parallel pipelines between
Tunisia and Italy.
Growing networks by 2035 covers
more countries and enables imports.
Between 2030 and 2035, the EHB will
continue to grow, covering more regions
and developing new interconnections
across EU member states. The increase in
dedicated H2
pipeline transport reflects
the urgency to mitigate climate change
and the opportunity for cost-effective
decarbonization. A rapidly increasing
number of H2
projects are expected to
receive public support. Industries will require
access to a liquid, mature and crossborder
European H2
market, enabled by
a growing H2 backbone. Pipeline transport
will be valuable to connect regions
with abundant solar photovoltaic (PV)
and wind potential with energy demand
centers, including areas which are out of
reach for power transmission infrastructure.
Whereas initially the H2
predominantly serves industrial H2
backbone
demand,
studies-including the Gas for
Climate Gas Decarbonization Pathways
2020-2050 study-show that during the
2030s, H2
will become a significant energy
vector in other sectors, including heavy
transport, and electricity production and
storage, thereby complementing the electricity
grid to integrate large volumes of
renewables in the energy system.
In central and eastern Europe, in addition
to what was presented in the 2020
EHB study, by 2035, an import route
from Ukraine to the EU could emerge,
passing through the networks in Slovakia
and the Czech Republic into Germany.
This transit route consists of large diameter
pipelines that can be repurposed.
Ukraine has high land availability and
good onshore and offshore wind and
solar PV resources. Combinations of offshore
and onshore wind plus solar PV can
SPECIAL FOCUS
reach high capacity factors, thus ensuring
a high utilization of electrolyzers and
pipelines, with limited storage.
Through Spain and France, a corridor
towards Germany could emerge by
2035. This route could connect H2
demand
clusters in the north of Europe with
sources in the Iberian Peninsula or even
North Africa. This enables these intermittent
renewable energy sources across Europe
to complement one another, while
also providing connections to storage options.
This further enables the transport
of large quantities of H2
uid, cross-border H2
to facilitate a liqmarket.
Hydrogen
Europe's 2x40 GW Initiative³
has called for 24 GW of electrolyzer
capacity in North Africa and 8 GW in
Ukraine to be developed by 2030 for exports
to Europe. Increased collaboration
with those countries, as priority partners,
was also specifically identified in the EU's
Hydrogen Strategy.⁴ The corridors connecting
regions with abundant renewable
energy resources would not only serve for
H2
imports, but also enhance the integrated
energy system by connecting diverse
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