Hydrogen infrastructure projects launched to connect Finland and Central Europe – EURACTIV.com | Popgen Tech

State-owned company and transmission system operator Gasgrid Finland signed a project agreement on Friday to develop a new piece of the regional hydrogen infrastructure network.

Pipelines of up to 5,000 kilometers will connect the Baltic Sea area and Central Europe by 2030.

A project called the Baltic Sea Hydrogen Collector (BHC), along with projects launched earlier, is said to complement the EU Hydrogen Strategy and REPowerEU Plan and support EU climate goals such as the EU Green Deal and Fit for 55 package.

The Baltic Sea Hydrogen Collector (BHC), which was launched on Friday by Gasgrid, Swedish gas transmission system operator Nordion Energi and two Danish companies OX2 and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, plans to connect mainland Finland and Sweden and Åland Island with Germany. Connections can also be built to Swedish Gotland and Danish Bornholm Islands.

According to Gasgrid, the aim is to use the offshore wind potential in the region and “create an efficient, harmonized and integrated hydrogen market in Europe”.

By building a route from production to use, the BHC is hoped to boost investments in the hydrogen value chains and improve decarbonisation and green industrialization in the Nordics, Baltics and Central Europe.

Two days earlier, on Wednesday (December 14), Gasgrid Finland, Elering (Estonia), Conexus Baltic Grid (Latvia), Amber Grid (Lithuania), GAZ-SYSTEM (Poland) and ONTRAS (Germany) signed a cooperation agreement on Nordic- Baltic Hydrogen Corridor, a hydrogen infrastructure from Finland through the Baltic countries and Poland to Germany.

Once completed, green hydrogen produced in the Baltic Sea area can be transported to supply consumption points and industries along the corridor and Central Europe.

The corridor will also improve energy security and reduce dependence on fossil energy. A pre-feasibility study of the project will be done next year.

Once completed by the end of the decade, the Baltic Sea Hydrogen Collector and the Nordic-Baltic Hydrogen Corridor will be connected to each other and the Nordic Hydrogen Route, a project in the Bothnian Bay between Finland and Sweden launched in April by the Finnish Gas Network and the Swedish Nordion Energi.

(Pekka Vänttinen | EURACTIV.com)