BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 10. About 91 planned pipeline projects in the world, totaling 30,300 kilometers, due to come online by around 2035, Trend reports via Rystad Energy, independent energy research and business intelligence company from Norway.
According to the research, currently, more than 4,300 kilometers of pipelines are transporting hydrogen, more than 90 percent of which are located in Europe and North America.
Today, Europe is leading in efforts to produce and import green hydrogen and its focus is now turning to building the necessary infrastructure to get it to demand centers.
"Spain, France, and Germany are among the countries committed or considering cross border pipelines to facilitate energy flows, while the UK with its extensive gas grid finds itself in a fantastic position to switch from natural gas to hydrogen," the Rystad Energy research said.
Taking into account the proposed projects for the production of green hydrogen in the EU, the current volume of local supplies is 7.9 million tons to be launched by 2030 (or only 2.1 million tons from the target). At the same time, the nearest deliveries will amount to 1 million tons in the rest of Europe - primarily in the UK and Norway - and another 1 million tons in the Middle East.
"Additionally, 3.4 Mt of proposed projects are in Africa, which could supply the largest amounts of hydrogen to Europe – by ship or pipeline. To plan for the distribution of these within the bloc, the European hydrogen backbone (EHB) initiative, which is a group of 31 European gas transmission system operators (TSOs), has published a vision paper for the future hydrogen pipeline infrastructure. This is based on national analysis of availability of existing natural gas infrastructure, future natural gas market developments, and future hydrogen market developments," the report added.
The EHB 2030 hydrogen infrastructure map implies a total length of approximately 28,000 kilometers in 2030 and 53,000 kilometers by 2040 in 28 European countries.
"Currently, dedicated hydrogen pipelines that will be available by 2030 amount to 23,365 kilometers, which is 83 percent of 2030 target. Rollout of hydrogen pipelines in Europe would be gradual and the project start of transmission or distribution pipelines will depend on the demand," the report added.
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