Germany's nationalised gas trader Securing Energy for Europe (SEFE) is considering the possibility of converting some of its underground storage and transmission pipelines. It wants to use them for pure hydrogen instead of natural gas, the company's chief executive Egbert Läge told Reuters in an interview.
„We don't have an exact calculation of the investment yet,“ Läge said. He said the cost of converting some of the gas reservoirs would be around 500 million euros (CZK 12.7 billion).
But the investment cost of converting some pipelines operated by subsidiary Gascade to hydrogen would be much higher. Läge estimated that they could be in the range of one to three billion euros.
A decision regarding the conversion of part of the storage facilities should be made this year, Läge added. Plans for the construction of a 1,200-kilometre hydrogen pipeline called Flow are more advanced and the investment could take place from next year. It would then last until 2028.
The goal: to reduce greenhouse gases
Germany is looking to increase its reliance on hydrogen as a future energy source to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and dependence on fossil fuels in industries that cannot be electrified. These include the steel and chemical industries.
The German company SEFE was formerly known as Gazprom Germania and operates in all sectors of the energy market in Germany. It has a 14 per cent share of the country's gas supply market and also operates in Britain and seven other European countries. It also operates 5.6 billion cubic meters of gas storage, a quarter of Germany's total capacity.
The German government nationalized the former subsidiary of Russia's Gazprom in 2022 because of the company's potential insolvency, which would threaten Germany's energy security. However, the state must exit the company by the end of 2028.
Source - ČTK
Photo source - power-technology.com/ Shutterstock
