OSLO, Norway— Europe is taking the lead globally with pipelines planned on and offshore, Rystad Energy reported earlier this month. The recently announced H2Med Barcelona-Marseille subsea hydrogen pipeline is budgeted to cost about $2.1 billion for a stretch of 450 km, and it was recently announced that it will be extended to Germany too.
Four grid operators—Spain’s Enagas, Portugal’s REN and French pair GRT and Terega—are conducting technical studies, potential pipeline layouts and cost assessments.
Germany’s first offshore hydrogen pipeline project, AquaDuctus, will transport green hydrogen from offshore wind installations in the North Sea to Germany. The pipeline stretches over 400 km and, according to one of its project partners, RWE, it is said to be the most cost-effective option for transporting large volumes of energy over distances of more than 400 km, compared to transporting power from a high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission system. For this reason, Rystad stated, the option to transport power onshore using power cables is excluded.
