FRANKFURT: Seven companies in Germany’s energy sector said on Tuesday that they had formed an alliance to bring clean hydrogen from the seashore to centres of industrial consumption.
Germany wants to build 10 gigawatts of green hydrogen capacity, made from solar and wind power, by 2030 and import massive volumes from overseas to help industries such as steelmaking or cement replace millions of tonnes of heavily carbon polluting “grey” hydrogen made with gas.
The alliance for the north to south hydrogen corridor focuses on the country’s only deep-sea port of Wilhelmshaven on the North Sea where production and imports will be arranged to eventually reach users via repurposed natural gas pipelines or newly-built hydrogen pipelines, they said in a news release.
A letter of intent had been signed and individual roles cast.
“The aim of the alliance is to create a network between Wilhelmshaven as a future location for hydrogen import and production with the industrial consumption centres in North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony,” they said.
The seven include the German arms of bp and Gasunie, and Germany’s own Nowega, NWO, Salzgitter, Thyssengas und Uniper. Together, they cover commodities production, storage, shipping and marketing as well as local crude steel production.
NWO and Nowega will contribute parts of existing oil and gas pipeline grids.