City of Hamburg presents strategy to become European green hydrogen hub

The city of Hamburg is aiming to play a key role in the German and European shift towards a hydrogen economy with a new import strategy for the climate-friendly fuel. The Northern German port city said it wants to capitalise on the economic opportunities offered by the expected green hydrogen market ramp-up, and presented a new action plan paving the way for large-scale imports of the fuel from Scandinavia via pipelines and from around the globe in ships using a terminal. "The strategy envisages using imports to meet not only regional needs, for example decarbonising local industry, but also parts of the national and European hydrogen demand," authorities said. "To this end, Hamburg is to be integrated into a European hydrogen network as an international hub." The city’s senator for economy and innovation, Michael Westhagemann, said the war in Ukraine gave its hydrogen plans a new urgency, according to a report in newspaper Die Welt. "By 2026, we want to be ready to produce relevant quantities of green hydrogen not only in Hamburg itself, but also to import it,” he said. Hamburg has already completed a memorandum of understanding with Scotland for the import of green hydrogen, the government said, adding it also wants to reach agreements with countries including Denmark, Norway, Chile, Australia, the USA, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

Hydrogen made with renewable electricity has emerged as a key steppingstone to reaching net-zero climate targets. The climate-neutral gas looks set to become the technology of choice for decarbonising sectors where emission reductions are particularly difficult, for example in heavy industry and aviation. As one of the key drivers behind a pan-European effort, Germany has set out to become a global leader in "tomorrow's oil" – not only for launching the next stages of its landmark energy transition, but also to secure a promising growth market for its internationally reputed industry.