German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni have reaffirmed their countries’ commitment to building a hydrogen-ready natural gas pipeline. The officials made their remarks at a press conference following a June 8, 2023, meeting in Rome.
The Ministries for Energy of Italy, Austria, and Germany last month signed a joint letter of political support for the development of a “southern hydrogen corridor” in the European Union and for the respective infrastructure projects to obtain the status of Project of Common Interest (PCI). Snam SPA, Trans Austria Gasleitung (TAG) GMBH and Gas Connect Austria (GCA) GMBH, and bayernets GMBH formed a partnership to develop the 4-million tonne/year SoutH2 Corridor, connecting North Africa to central Europe and enabling renewable hydrogen produced in the Southern Mediterranean to reach European consumers.
SoutH2 Corridor, a planned 3,300-km dedicated hydrogen-ready pipeline corridor, will be part of the planned European Hydrogen Backbone and could deliver 40% of the REPowerEU’s hydrogen import target. Participants expect it to be operational as early as 2030. REPowerEU is a European Union program seeking to reduce gas consumption and improve energy efficiency in buildings and industry.
The corridor consists of the following individual PCI project candidates: Italian H2 Backbone (Snam Rete Gas), H2 Readiness of the TAG pipeline system (TAG), H2 Backbone WAG + Penta-West (GCA), and HyPipe Bavaria – The Hydrogen Hub (bayernets).
