Poland, Baltics opt in on green hydrogen corridor project

The national grid operators of Poland and the three Baltic countries signed a cooperation agreement with their German and Nordic peers on new hydrogen infrastructure linking Finland to Germany via their countries, on Wednesday 14 December.

The Nordic-Baltic Hydrogen Corridor signatories from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) were Poland’s GAZ-SYSTEM, Estonia’s Elering, Latvia’s Conexus Baltic Grid, and Lithuania’s Amber Grid, as well as Germany’s ONTRAS and Finland’s Gasgrid.

The Finnish company also signed on Friday a deal to lay a regional hydrogen infrastructure network connecting CEE and the Baltic Sea area by 2030.

The Baltic Sea Hydrogen Collector (BHC) will be up to 5,000km in length and aims to complement the REPowerEU plan and EU hydrogen strategies. By connecting supply and demand, it will also contribute to the EU’s Green Deal and Fit for 55 sustainable energy frameworks.

The BHC, Gasgrid said, would ”create an efficient, harmonised and integrated hydrogen market in Europe”and contribute to decarbonisation and green industrialisation in CEE, by allowing green hydrogen transits via the energy corridor.

A pre-feasibility study for the BHC will be carried out in 2023, based on which a final decision will be made on whether to proceed with the project.