The Oldenburg-based energy service provider EWE has joined the hydrogen infrastructure project "Flow - making hydrogen happen". EWE Gas Storage CEO Peter Schmidt signed the declaration of accession with initiator Gascade in Kassel. In the project, the gas network operators Gascade, Ontras and terranets BW want to establish a pipeline system for green hydrogen that runs from Lubmin on the Baltic Sea to south-western Germany. EWE will be involved in particular as a storage operator.
For EWE, the partnership is part of its strategy to offer hydrogen infrastructure for an emissions-reduced energy supply. According to Peter Schmidt, CEO of EWE Gasspeicher GmbH, the north-south transport route planned as part of flow - making hydrogen happen can be expanded to include the perspective of hydrogen storage operators and thus "an indispensable building block" with the addition of EWE. Overall, the project is "very important and valuable" as it brings together "the coordinated approach of the relevant players" and thus "a large industry network" for the hydrogen ramp-up.
Storage facilities are a prerequisite for market ramp-up
The establishment of the transport and storage infrastructure is the prerequisite for a market ramp-up of the hydrogen economy. Storage facilities are important for security of supply and system stability, especially in an energy system that will rely heavily on renewable energies in the future. Several studies forecast high storage requirements, which, in addition to a carefully planned conversion of existing underground caverns, would also require the construction of new caverns. According to Schmidt, the announced national storage strategy would therefore have the important task of creating this reliable framework.
The aim of the partner network "Flow - making hydrogen happen" is to connect Germany to international hydrogen markets in terms of infrastructure and thus open up supply options for large quantities of hydrogen. The conversion of natural gas pipelines to the transportation of hydrogen is initially more important than the construction of new pipelines. Around 90% of the approximately 1,100 km long pipeline network has been converted, explains Gascade Managing Director Ulrich Benterbusch: "This is the only way we can offer the market transport capacities as early as next year, i.e. from 2025."
