Gas group welcomes German energy law changes
Germany's parliament approved an amendment to the Energy Industry Act and a law regulating pure hydrogen networks late June 24, to the satisfaction of gas industry lobby group Zukunft Gas (ZG).
The Bundestag's decision allowing the joint use and financing of natural gas and hydrogen networks is very important as a first step towards a successful ramp-up of a German and European hydrogen economy, ZG said. The transitional regulation that allows a fluid transition of regulations and small investments in infrastructure until the EU regulation is changed to fit the new situation, are a sensible foundation.
"According to the current legal situation, natural gas and hydrogen networks have to be separated. However, this is neither ecologically nor economically sensible: with the gas infrastructure we already have the networks for the use of hydrogen in the future," it said.
"With the expansion of renewable energy, we have seem how difficult it is to set up a new transport infrastructure. Building cables to bring electricity from renewables from the north to the south is not progressing. In contrast, the gas infrastructure already exists," it said.
Green hydrogen can therefore be produced by windfarms in the north and transported to where it is needed in the south, using the existing networks.
"Now it is important to bring about a change in the European regulation: ideally already in the course of the revision of the internal gas market regulation," it said.
ZG changed its name from Zukunft Erdgas (Future Natural Gas) early this year to reflect the growing role of other gases in the energy mix. But not everyone is happy with the existing gas transmission system operators (TSOs) assuming the additional business that hydrogen transport offers. It could limit investments or see the TSOs face conflicts of interest between the two gases.
Germany's transmission system operators recently published a draft 10-year development plan for integrating hydrogen with the existing gas network.