H2Tech - Q2 2022 - 25

HYDROGEN INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT
Gasunie Germany confirmed a vision on
offshore H2
production near Helgoland
in the North Sea as per 2030. Other plans
could not yet be shown on FIG. 1 due to
uncertainties about locations and timing.
New H2
pipeline stretches in Central,
Eastern and Southern Europe by 2040
would enable pan-European energy system
integration and decarbonization. It
would enable a larger role of renewables in
a largely coal-based power mix and enable
H2
located in central and eastern Europe.
In Poland, by 2040, a mature H2
TABLE 1. Estimated investment and operating cost of the EHB (2040)
Low
Pipeline cost, €B ($B)
Compression cost, €B ($B)
Total investment cost, €B ($B)
Operational expenditures (excluding electricity),
€B/yr ($B/yr)
Electricity costs, €B/yr ($B/yr)
Total operational expenditures, €B/yr ($B/yr)
supply to decarbonize heavy industry
network
could emerge, which would enable
the integration of large amounts of
(offshore) wind energy up north. This
energy could then be transported in the
form of H2
to possible industrial demand
regions in the south, while storage of the
intermittently produced energy would be
enabled by a salt cavern near the supply
in the north. Additionally, the Baltic gas
pipeline from Denmark to Poland could
be repurposed to dedicated H2
transport
by 2040, respecting long-term natural
gas contracts on this pipeline which run
until the end of 2037.
In Austria, an alternative route to transport
H2 from east to west or vice versa
would be available. The additional possibilities
would contribute to the decarbonization
of industry in Austria and to reach
the ambitious 2040 carbon neutrality target
set by the Austrian government.
In northwest Europe, the 2040 panEuropean
network would also connect
Ireland with the UK to the rest of the EHB
by repurposing one of the interconnectors
from the UK to Ireland and by repurposing
of the IUK interconnector from Belgium
to the UK. In Ireland, a H2
from compressor costs. Annual operating
costs are estimated to be between €1.7 B
($1.86 B) and €3.8 B ($4.15 B) when assuming
a load factor of 5,000 hr/yr. Note:
Not all these operating costs are additional
to current costs of running natural
gas infrastructure. For reference, annual
operating costs of natural gas infrastructure
are around 5% of investment costs.
Regarding load factor, this study considers
the backbone from an infrastructure
investment perspective and does not take
a strong stance on the exact level of network
utilization. A load factor of 5,000 hr/
yr is deemed reasonable, cognizant of the
fact this value will change depending on
future market developments, which will
impact resulting costs accordingly.
An overview of these costs is provided
in TABLE 1. Transporting H2
over
1,000 km along an average stretch of the
H2
backbone, as presented in this report,
transported, with
would cost €0.11/kg-€0.21/kg ($0.12/
kg-$.023/kg) of H2
valley
could emerge around Dublin, just south
of where the repurposed interconnector
from the UK would land. In the UK,
all options for converting the existing gas
network to H2
have been shown; however,
within this period.
not all these pipelines will have completed
conversion to H2
Updated cost of an expanded EHB.
Total investment costs of the envisaged
2040 EHB are expected to range from
€43 B-€81 B ($47 B-$88.5 B), covering
the full capital cost of building new H2
pipelines and repurposing pipelines for
the European backbone. The ranges reflect
differences in capital cost assumptions,
with the greatest uncertainty stemming
€0.16/kg ($0.17/kg) for the central case.
This corresponds to €3.3/MWh-€6.3/
MWh ($3.61/MWh-$6.89/MWh) of H2
per 1,000 km, with €4.9/MWh ($5.36/
MWh) in the central case. Although marginally
higher than 2020's estimate, this
confirms that the EHB is an attractive and
cost-effective option for long-distance
transportation of H2
, considering an estimated
future production cost of €1/kg-
€2/kg ($1.09/kg-$2.19/kg) of H2
.
The updated investment costs shown in
differ from the previous estimate of
over 1,000 km. The difference in
TABLE 1 and updated transport costs per kg
of H2
€27 B-€64 B ($29.5 B-$69.96 B) reported
in the 2020 study, with transport costs of
€0.09-€0.17 ($0.10-$0.19) to transport a
kg of H2
investment costs and levelized costs vs. the
previous EHB report are due to a combination
of the following three factors:
1. The backbone has expanded in
length and scope. The updated
33 (36.1)
10 (10.9)
43 (47)
0.8 (0.9)
0.9 (1)
1.7 (1.9)
SPECIAL FOCUS
Medium
41 (44.8)
15 (16.4)
56 (61.2)
1.1 (1.2)
1.1 (1.2)
2.2 (2.4)
High
51 (55.7)
30 (32.8)
81 (88.5)
1.8 (2)
2 (2.2)
3.8 (4.2)
network covers a total distance
of 39,700 km across 21 European
countries with highly diverse
gas infrastructures, compared to
23,000 km across 10 countries in
the previous EHB report.
2. The relative share of repurposed
and new pipelines has changed
following the geographic
expansion of the network. The
enlarged network includes 69%
repurposed pipelines, while 75%
of the previous shorter network
consisted of repurposed pipelines.
This change is due to countryspecific
differences in network
topology, expected pipeline
availability and the creation of new
H2
networks for renewable energy
integration in the Nordics, where
limited gas infrastructure exists.
3. A more granular assessment
of pipeline diameters has been
conducted. Pipeline diameters
of gas grids across Europe differ
in size. The previous study used
a simplified assumption that the
entire backbone would consist of
large 48-in. pipelines. The updated
investment costs presented in
the current report differentiate
between 48-in., 36-in. and 20-in.
pipelines (1,200 mm, 900 mm,
and 500 mm, respectively).
Approximately half of the total
network will consist of mediumsized
pipelines plus smaller
stretches of pipelines with a small
diameter. Repurposing or building
new smaller sized pipelines
imply reduced unit capital costs
and lower throughput capacities
compared to 48-in. pipelines. The
breakdown of the EHB network
by pipeline length, diameter and
type-repurposed or new-is
shown in FIG. 2.
H2Tech | Q2 2022 25
H2Tech - Q2 2022

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