H2 Import Consortium Bavaria: industry is taking the initiative and building on state support.

Six companies from the energy industry and chemical industry are developing a timetable for building up the value chain for importing hydrogen to Bavaria. The goal is to make hydrogen economically viable, sustainable and available in sufficient quantities from 2030. The initiative is focused on the supply of hydrogen to Bavarian industry. The activities of the companies bayernets GmbH, BAYERNOIL Raffineriegesellschaft mbH, Gas Connect Austria GmbH, Wacker Chemie AG, Westlake Vinnolit GmbH & Co. KG and Verbund AG are of great importance for the diversified European hydrogen market as a whole.

The steps needed at the individual companies are coordinated along the value chain in order to realise the ramp-up of the hydrogen industry by 2030. Infrastructure projects necessary for this have been submitted to the European Commission as projects of common interest (PCI). The H2 Import Consortium is currently focusing on the southern hydrogen import corridor (production in North Africa, e.g. Tunisia, and transport via Italy and Austria). The consortium’s work shows that Bavaria can cover a significant portion of the diversified European H2 network with its gas infrastructure. In order to achieve the hydrogen import timetable, regulatory issues and existing bureaucratic hurdles must first be overcome. Establishing the hydrogen import corridors also requires financial state incentives in the ramp-up phase.

Hydrogen is essential for the successful transformation to climate neutrality. Above all, industry rapidly needs green hydrogen for the material and energy-related defossilisation of their processes in order to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. The availability of hydrogen produced in large quantities under economic conditions is essential for highly developed industrial locations in Bavaria.

For Bavaria’s immediate hydrogen supply, it is enormously important to build up regional hydrogen production. At the same time, the objective must be to supply highly industrialised regions that do not have sufficient renewable energy for hydrogen production due to their geographical circumstances and to do so via a European hydrogen network. An import from regions with very good wind and solar conditions is needed for the production of hydrogen. Transporting hydrogen along pipelines represents the most cost-effective and scalable way to import it to Bavaria. Existing natural gas pipelines can be converted efficiently and cost-effectively into hydrogen pipelines for the transport of hydrogen. The hydrogen import routes created in this way can be used above all by interested market participants in a non-discriminatory way (“open access”).