Hydrogen network planning
How is the hydrogen network developing?
The vision is clear: Germany is to become climate-neutral by 2045 – with the help of hydrogen. An important step on the path to reaching this goal is appropriate network planning. Where is the hydrogen being sourced? Where is it needed and how much? And how can all of these areas be best connected? These questions are considered in the Gas Network Development Plan 2020–2030 as well as the updated version for 2022–2032.
Gas Network Development Plan
The Gas Network Development Plan 2020–2030 initially derived future transport requirements based on a survey of potential producers and consumers of hydrogen and translated these into possible hydrogen development measures. While it was drafted without a legal framework at the time, the approach of a national hydrogen transport network found support amongst politicians, administrators as well as the market. The Gas Network Development Plan 2022–2032 (in German) is once again based on a market survey and aims to continue the development of a future, potentially nationwide hydrogen transport network.
Grid expansion measures Hydrogen variant 2032 (in German)
Clear potential of Eastern Germany as a hydrogen region
The above diagram shows the results of the hydrogen network planning for 2032 – separated by aggregated hydrogen demand and supply per district, for which a memorandum of understanding (MoU) has been signed. This allowed the transmission system operators to put together a potential hydrogen network that connects the key consumption and production areas. For the Eastern Germany hydrogen region, the hydrogen production (feed-in) areas are predominantly located in the north-east and in the centre of the region. The hydrogen consumption centres (feed-out) are primarily larger metropolitan areas with industry, such as in Berlin, Halle-Leipzig and Dresden. This also shows that a functioning hydrogen infrastructure that connects feed-in and feed-out points is the cornerstone of a future decarbonised economy. For Germany as a whole, the network development planning also contains an analysis, which shows that three-quarters of the roughly 2,000 km of gas supply lines in question could be converted to hydrogen by 2027 without including the natural gas expansion measures.
