Germany’s future hydrogen network is taking on clearer dimensions. If all goes to plan, the populous Rhine-Main region – which includes the cities of Frankfurt, Wiesbaden, Mainz, and their surroundings – will soon have its own dedicated 300-km local distribution network for the renewable fuel.

Provided adequate financing can be secured for the ambitious undertaking expected to cost around EUR 610 mn up to 2040, the first segment of the new network dubbed Rh₂ein-Main Connect should be in place by 2028.

According to Jörg Bergmann, CEO of transmission systems operator Open Grid Europe (OGE; https://oge.net/en), which is overseeing the project, supply of green hydrogen to early anchor customers should be ensured from the outset.

In addition to OGE, partners in Rh₂ein-Main Connect include distribution system operators e-netz Südhessen and NRM Netzdienste Rhein-Main, regional utilities ENTEGA, Mainova, and ESWE Versorgung, along with power plant operator Kraftwerke Mainz-Wiesbaden (KMW).

The connector in central southwest Germany is planned to form part of the wider H₂ercules network, which was created by OGE and German energy powerhouse RWE (Essen; www.rwe.com/en).

Backers of the project, alternatively touted as the heart of a super-sized national hydrogen infrastructure, or its backbone, say it could develop into a pipeline network of around 1,500 km and have the potential to cover two-thirds of the hydrogen demand from the German industrial centres along the recommended route by 2030.

To transform the vision of a national grid into a reality, the H₂ercules founders are looking for additional regional partners that would work at various steps along the value chain to extend the supply of green hydrogen farther south and west.

Related: Germany ups budget for renewable hydrogen

If Germany is to achieve its climate goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2045, industry needs to have large volumes of green hydrogen available as quickly as possible, says Markus Krebber, CEO of RWE. The Westphalian utility has announced plans to build additional electrolyser capacity of up to 1 GW by 2030 to feed steelworks, chemical plants, and refineries in both the Ruhr area and the southern part of the country. 

RWE also intends to build H₂-ready, gas-fired power stations with a capacity of at least 2 GW close to the planned H₂ercules route and to connect its gas storage systems near the Dutch border to the network.

With the start-up of the new network at the confluence of the Rhine and Main rivers, domestic and imported hydrogen produced with wind energy is planned to flow from North Sea landing terminals southward through disused natural gas pipelines.

Complementary import routes currently under scrutiny – Belgium and the Netherlands have been mentioned – are expected to be in place by 2030. Parallel to this, regional consumption centres that would help key industries to decarbonise their production are envisaged.

As Mainova is already seeing “great demand” for climate-neutral energy from its customers, CEO Peter Arnold says the Frankfurt-based utility and its future collaborators will need to invest massively in distribution channels.

Implementing the Rhine-Main network will also require the expansion of the energy infrastructure before the end of the current decade, he stresses. 

Toward this goal, Oliver Malerius, CEO of KMW, notes that the collaborating companies are working to identify locations with expected heavy use of the green fuel that would generate CO₂-neutral electricity and process heat while developing the needed pipeline technology.

Annual hydrogen demand from consumers in the Rhine-Main area is forecast to be around 5 terawatt hours (TWh) in 2030, growing to around 24 TWh/y by 2045.

Commenting on the hardware requirements, Jörg Höhler, chief technical officer of ESWE, explains that the first sections of the initial network will have to be “built from scratch” up to 2032, after which time existing natural gas pipelines increasingly will be rededicated to the new purpose.

Where possible, Höhler expects that industrial partners will be offered the opportunity to feed hydrogen produced through electrolysis from their plants into the new regional network. The first large companies, among them Thyssenkrupp (Essen; www.thyssenkrupp.com/en), have expressed their interest in being connected to the H₂hercules grid.

Chemicals and pharmaceuticals group Merck (Darmstadt; www.merckgroup.com) regards itself as a future consumer of hydrogen as part of its drive to become climate-neutral worldwide by 2040. The planned Rhine-Main distribution network “encourages us to focus on green hydrogen at our Darmstadt site in line with our energy strategy”, says site manager Matthias Bürk.

Related: EU hydrogen auction attracts 132 bids

In view of the massive expenditure needed to realise the planners’ dreams, ESWE chief Höhler has called on the state of Hesse, whose capital is Wiesbaden and its economic and financial centre Frankfurt, to make a “decisive contribution” to launching the first public climate-neutral hydrogen distribution network in the state. 

Fuelled by substantial support from major economies and venture capitalists promoting green hydrogen, data and analytics firm Global Data (www.globaldata.com) sees the clean energy landscape as gaining significant momentum in 2024, due not least to high-impact innovations.

In the first quarter alone, it says, leading start-ups in the photocatalyst electrodes monitored by Global Data’s Technology Foresights, including Sunfire, Ohmium, and Verdagy, have collectively raised nearly USD 500 mn from top-tier venture investors.

Globally, the surge in interest surrounding green hydrogen is unmistakable, the consultants add. In India, projects valued at USD 2 bn have already received clearance, and the country is expected to see investments worth another USD 12 bn in the coming years. Italy has also created a USD 1.1 bn fund to finance the establishment of electrolyser production facilities.

Aligning with the international trend, Morocco has designated 1 mn hectares of land for green hydrogen production, with investors such as TPG Capital (Forth Worth, Texas, USA; www.tpg.com) and Singapore’s Temasek (www.temasek.com.sg) injecting millions of dollars into green hydrogen funds.

Key players in green hydrogen production technology, such as Japanese giants Toshiba (Tokyo; www.toshiba.com) and Panasonic (Tokyo; www.panasonic.com), along with Denmark’s Topsoe (Lyngby; www.topsoe.com) are also seen to be at the forefront of innovation in photocatalyst electrodes.