Four Central European countries are joining forces to build a hydrogen pipeline from Ukraine to the center of our continent. The new route will bypass Poland, but there is a Polish footprint in the investment.
Gas transmission system operators from Germany (OGE), Czech Republic (NET4GAS), Slovakia (Eustream) and Ukraine (GTSOU) have come up with a joint initiative to create a Central European transformation of Poland’s eastern neighbor to Germany, which needs this fuel for decarbonized industrial processes in accordance with climate policy.
– Natural gas will remain an important energy source and part of the decarbonisation agenda for the next two decades. Thus, hydrogen will play an important role until 2050, when European economies become climate neutral, so it is worth considering this prospect now. Hydrogen is a promising technology at an early stage of its introduction into the economy. Cooperation with neighboring transmission network operators creates great synergy in the development of green hydrogen, – said Pavel Stanchak (formerly PGNiG), vice president of the Ukrainian operator GTSOU.
The hydrogen main will be built using dedicated water pipelines, as well as adapted gas pipelines. The project envisions the supply of up to 120 GWh of green hydrogen produced from renewable energy sources by 2030. As a reminder, PGNiG is present in Ukraine and wants to produce gas there. However, hydrogen produced from gas (blue) is an emissive solution and is not considered a target solution in the European Union.