Italy, Germany, Austria pledge support for hydrogen pipeline from N Africa

Italy, Austria and Germany will provide political support for the development of a 3,300 km (2,051 miles) hydrogen corridor that will transport low-cost renewable hydrogen from North Africa to key clusters of demand in Europe.

The energy ministries of the three countries have signed a letter of support for the initiative, Italian gas infrastructure operator Snam said this week.

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Dubbed SoutH2 Corridor, the hydrogen-ready pipeline will enable the import of more than 4 million tonnes of green hydrogen per annum from North Africa to Europe as early as 2030. This will be enough to meet 40% of the REPowerEU import target.

The pipeline will be developed by Snam in partnership with transmission system operators (TSOs) Trans Austria Gasleitung (TAG) and Gas Connect Austria (GCA) as well as Germany's bayernets.

Most of the pipeline will feature existing repurposed midstream infrastructure to transport hydrogen, with the construction of some new infrastructure where necessary.

The green hydrogen would be produced in North Africa and supplied to the demand clusters of Augusta, Taranto and northern Italy, Styria, Vienna and Linz in Austria as well as Burghausen and Ingolstadt in Germany. Producers planning to produce about 2.5 million tonnes of renewable hydrogen per year have pledged to support the initiative.

The SoutH2 Corridor is part of the European Hydrogen Backbone and consists of several individual projects -- Snam Rete Gas's Italian H2 Backbone, Trans Austria Gasleitung's H2 Readiness of the TAG pipeline system, Gas Connect Austria's H2 Backbone WAG + Penta-West and bayernets's HyPipe Bavaria – The Hydrogen Hub.