BAKU, Azerbaijan, Apr.13
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
Total investment costs of the envisaged 2040 European Hydrogen Backbone (EHB) are expected to range from €43 to €81 billion, covering the full capital cost of building new hydrogen pipelines and repurposing pipelines for the European backbone, Trend reports citing the updated EHB report.
The ranges reflect differences in capital cost assumptions, with the greatest uncertainty stemming from compressor costs. Annual operating costs are estimated to be between €1.7 and €3.8 billion when assuming a load factor of 5,000 hours per year.
Transporting hydrogen over 1,000 km along an average stretch of the hydrogen backbone would cost €0.11-0.21 per kg of hydrogen transported, with €0.16 per kg for the central case. Although marginally higher than last year’s estimate this confirms that the EHB is an attractive and cost-effective option for long-distance transportation of hydrogen, taking into account an estimated future production cost of €1.00-2.00 per kg of hydrogen.
The updated transport costs per kg of hydrogen differ from the previous estimate of €27 to €64 billion reported in the 2020 study, with transport costs of €0.09 to €0.17 to transport a kilogramme of hydrogen over 1,000 km. The difference in investment costs and levelised costs compared to the previous EHB report are due to a combination of three factors:
1) The backbone has expanded in length and scope. The updated 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 percent repurposed pipelines, while 75 percent of the previous shorter network consisted of repurposed pipelines. This change is due to country-specific differences in network topology, expected pipeline availability as well as the creation of new hydrogen networks for renewable energy integration in the Nordics, where today 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-inch pipelines.
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