EU Grants €24M to Advance North Africa-Europe Hydrogen Link

The European Climate, Environment and Infrastructure Executive Agency has awarded €24 million towards the Italian H2 Backbone hydrogen project, which forms part of the larger SoutH2 Corridor linking North Africa to Europe.

Serving as part of the Connecting Europe Facility for Energy initiative, the grant was awarded on in June to gas network operator Snam. The financing will be used to support engineering and environmental studies.

The SoutH2 Corridor is a 3,300 km hydrogen pipeline system that targets an import capacity of 4 million tons per annum from North Africa to southern Germany. The project is being developed by transmission system operators Snam (Italy); bayernets (Germany); and the Trans Austria Gas Pipeline and Gas Connect Austria (Austria).

The Italian H2 Backbone will comprise a transport network of approximately 1,900 km, of which roughly 60% will be converted from existing gas infrastructure. The project also includes several hundred MW of compression stations.

The pipeline is targeted to come online by 2030.