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Germany continues its push towards a hydrogen economy with several major announcements over the past week.

While various challenges with respect to cost and scale up are not to be dismissed, the long-game here for Europe and Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, will need imports to cover about 70% of its demand of up to 130 terawatt-hours by 2030, according to the strategy paper released this week. Provaris continues to hold a dialogue with several German port operators and utilities for a suitable location for the import of hydrogen using our H2Neo carriers, and is targeting 2028 for a bulk-scale maritime solution, working with German utilities to identify and develop alternative supply chains required for a portfolio of gaseous pipeline-ready hydrogen to supply downstream industrial users.

Germany has signed off €4.6bn of funding for 23 green hydrogen projects under the Important Projects of Common European Interest scheme. The projects cover up to 1.4GW of hydrogen production capacity, 370GWh of hydrogen storage, 2,000km of pipelines. Germany’s funding is part of a broader €6.9bn EU-wide third IPCEI Hy2Infra scheme supporting 33 projects in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Slovakia, agreed in Feb. Read more: https://loom.ly/hpqyP1Y

Germany’s gas transmission system operators have submitted a new proposal to build out 9,666km of hydrogen pipelines throughout the country in various stages by 2032, as part of the government’s wider plans for a core H2 network to connect key industrial hubs. With the total cost expected to cost €19.7 billion, the submission included EnBW’s subsidiaries who intends to invest around €1bn ($1.08bn) in establishing and expanding a national hydrogen core network in Germany. The application marks “a decisive step toward building hydrogen infrastructure,” Economy Minister Robert Habeck said in a statement. Barbara Fischer, MD of Germany’s Association of Gas Transmission System Operators, said it solves industry’s “chicken-and-egg problem”, with many players hesitating to invest in an unknown market. More: https://loom.ly/zMY2P7Y

Finally, Germany’s import strategy for hydrogen and its derivatives, outlining the legal framework for their imports, was decided by the German Gov yesterday. Germany’s Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck underlined again the demand of hydrogen and derivatives between 95 and 130 TWh by 2030, of which 50-70% (45-90 TWh) will have to be imported. This number could increase to 360 to 500TWh of hydrogen and 200 TWh of derivatives by 2045, the year Germany aims to be net zero. This includes import of hydrogen in gaseous, liquid or derivative carriers (ammonia, methanol) with the aim to diversify the supply sources. The only new news was the inclusion of low-carbon hydrogen, which in our view, will place an emphasis on supply of RFNBO compliant hydrogen sources from regions such as the Nordics. More: https://loom.ly/d76MJzY