With the approval of the hydrogen core network by the Federal Network Agency (BNetzA), construction can now get underway. The core network will connect central hydrogen locations in all federal states.
A printed map already shows the future infrastructure of the core network as it should look in the target year 2032 according to the approval. The infrastructure is a prerequisite for the hydrogen ramp-up in Germany. Hydrogen can then flow from north to south and from west to east. Production centers, import points, storage facilities and consumers from industry and power plants will be connected. After just one and a half years of intensive planning, implementation is now starting.
The core network that has now been approved comprises pipelines with a total length of 9,040 kilometers, of which around 60 percent will be converted from the previous natural gas operation (solid lines) and the rest will be newly built (dashed lines). In the target year 2032, the feed-in capacity should be 101 gigawatts (GW) and the feed-out capacity 87 GW. This means that hydrogen producers in Germany and abroad, power plant operators and future users in industry now have planning security. Because hydrogen will arrive where it is needed.
