Page 11 - EurOil Week 26 2021

EurOil ENERGY TRANSITION EurOil

German gas industry welcomes

hydrogen amendment

GERMANY GAS industry lobby group Zukunft Gas (ZG) development plan on June 22, calling for urgent
has welcomed the German parliament’s approval investment in hydrogen infrastructure. The draft
The move will enable of an amendment to the country’s energy indus- estimates that there are 500 hydrogen projects
the integration of gas try act that regulates pure hydrogen networks. that have been proposed in Germany. Based on
and hydrogen networks The move will enable the integration of gas a market survey, it estimates that the country’s
in terms of use and and hydrogen networks in terms of use and hydrogen demand could reach 191 TWh within
financing. financing, paving the way for a German hydro- ten years, 342 TWh in 2040 and 476 TWh in
gen market to emerge, ZG said in a statement. 2050.
Crucially, it will mean some investment in infra- “The enormous number of projects clearly
structure can move forward ahead of similar shows that we have to provide a hydrogen infra-
amendments on an EU level. structure at an early stage,” FNB Gas chairman
“According to the current legal situation, Thomas Goessmann commented. “This is the
natural gas and hydrogen networks have to be only way we can make the energy system fit for
separated. However, this is neither ecologically the future and achieve Germany’s ambitious cli-
or economically sensible: with the gas infrastruc- mate protection goals.”
ture we already have the networks for the use of Germany is heavily prioritising the devel-
hydrogen in the future,” ZG explained. “With opment of so-called green hydrogen, extracted
the expansion of renewable energy, we have from water using electrolysis, with the process
seen how difficult it is to set up a new transport powered through renewable energy. Accord-
infrastructure. Building cables to bring electric- ing to FNB, the country’s electrolyser capacity
ity from renewables from the north to the south is anticipated to reach 1.7 GW in 2027, 2.4 GW
is not progressing. In contrast, the gas infrastruc- in 2030 and potentially 8 GW in 2035. Not only
ture already exists.” are internal transmission infrastructure and
The approval comes after FNB, which repre- storage needed to support the market, but also
sents Germany’s transmission system operators import capacity, as Germany’s hydrogen needs
(TSOs), unveiled a draft 2022-2032 network are expected to exceed supply. ™

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