More than 1,000km hydrogen pipeline network may be built in Germany thanks to NordStream explosions
Three German gas distributors join forces on proposed new H2 grid — in an apparent reaction to redundancy in a 480km pipe built to carry Russian gas
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And one of the pipelines reportedly in the mix for conversion during the first phase is Gascade’s enormous European Gas Pipeline Link (EUGAL) — a high-pressure 480km transmission pipeline built less than three years ago to carry Russian gas from the NordStream landing point at Lubmin, on Germany’s Baltic coast, to southern Germany.
NS2, completed in 2021, was mothballed before it ever came onstream due to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Nevertheless, EUGAL was running at full capacity in April 2021, carrying gas from NordStream 1 (NS1). However Russia ceased filling NS1 this year, and it has since been severely damaged in a suspected sabotage attack — raising the possibility that EUGAL could have enough spare capacity to warrant conversion to hydrogen.
OPAL is owned by Gascade's parent company Wiga Transport, a collaboration between German oil firm Wintershall and, until recently, Russian gas giant Gazprom, which ditched the company this year when it was sanctioned by the EU.
Dirk Flandrich, Gascade’s senior hydrogen project manager, told German journalists that the project could utilise around half the length of OPAL or EUGAL as soon as 2025.
Both OPAL and EUGAL have twin sets of parallel pipes which means that in principle one pipe could carry H2 with the other carrying gas.
The first segment of the trio’s plan, to be completed by 2025, would run from Mechlenburg-Western Pomerania’s Baltic coastline to Thuringa, southwest of Leipzig. The partners then intend to convert more pipes in Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany’s far southwest by 2028, before turning east to continue into Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria by 2030.
UPDATED: to include details of Gascade and OPAL's parent company, Wiga Transport.
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