The European Commission has announced that it will allocate the Nordic-Baltic Hydrogen Corridor (NBHC) with a €6.8 million grant to support its feasibility study phase. 

This decision will significantly enhance establishing the hydrogen infrastructure that will connect Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Germany, forming a vital backbone for Europe’s green energy future. The competition for infrastructure funding in the EU is fierce, so this decision is a great testament to the quality and necessity of the NBHC project and showcase its potential to contribute to the EU’s energy self-sufficiency targets and support the clean energy transition.

In April 2024, the US Baker Hughes group announced that it is making a strategic investment in the Estonian hydrogen technology company Elcogen. The company has now raised more than €140m to continuously develop and scale its market-leading solid oxide technology, enabling affordable green hydrogen and accelerating the energy transition. 

The €6.8 million grant will help the NBHC project to execute feasibility phase studies across the respective countries. These studies will focus on various crucial aspects including pipeline routing, compressor stations planning, financial and economic analysis, environmental and safety permitting issues as well as investigations on an implementation timeline. These studies are expected to run until the end of 2026.

Six companies join forces for the hydrogen project

The NBHC is a joint project of six European transmission system operators: Finland’s Gasgrid vetyverkot Oy, Estonia’s Elering, Latvia’s Conexus Baltic Grid, Lithuania’s Amber Grid, Poland’s Gaz-System, as well as Germany’s Ontras. According to the participants of the project, this decision reinforces the Baltic region’s competitiveness in the hydrogen sector and confirms the project partners’ commitment to both national and international hydrogen infrastructure development.

This project demonstrates the growing importance of cross-border collaborations in Europe’s transition to a clean and sustainable energy future. As the feasibility phase progresses, the project is set to become a cornerstone of Europe’s energy landscape, fostering a green economy and supporting the EU’s goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.

By 2040, the corridor is projected to transport up to 2.7 million tons (Mt) of renewable hydrogen annually between the countries. The pre-feasibility study indicated that the NBHC can be one of the first operational cross-border hydrogen pipelines in Europe. The NBHC pipeline is currently planned to be 48 inches (1,200 mm) in diameter, with several compressor stations and spanning approximately 2,500 km.

The European Commission is co-financing cross-border energy infrastructure projects through the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) under the Trans-European Networks for Energy (TEN-E) framework.

GOOD TO KNOW

• The NBHC is a cross-border hydrogen infrastructure project, that enables hydrogen transmission in Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Germany.
• The parties to the project are gas transmission system operators: Gasgrid, (Finland), Elering (Estonia), Conexus Baltic Grid (Latvia), Amber Grid (Lithuania), Gaz System (Poland), and ONTRAS (Germany).
• By linking production centers in the Nordic and Baltic regions with major demand hubs, the project will contribute significantly to decarbonizing energy systems, including hard-to-abate industrial sectors, and reduce carbon emissions by up to 37 million tons of CO2 equivalent annually by 2050.
• Nordic-Baltic Hydrogen Corridor connects different supply, demand, and storage points along the corridor route, creating a regional hydrogen system and market.
• For Europe, this project strongly supports the EU’s hydrogen strategy and the REPowerEU plan, reducing the reliance on Russian energy imports. The project helps to achieve EU climate goals, such as the EU’s Green Deal program and the Fit for 55, paving the way to a new sustainable economy.

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