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CleanTechnicaabout 1 month ago

When Steel Outlives Strategy: The Climate Cost of Germany’s Hydrogen Pipeline

Key Takeaway

The premature development of large-scale energy infrastructure, such as hydrogen pipelines, without established supply and demand creates significant financial risks and can lead to stranded assets, underscoring the need for integrated market and policy planning.

AI Summary

  • Germany's 400 km hydrogen backbone segment is complete, pressurized with fossil hydrogen, but lacks meaningful suppliers and contracted offtakers.
  • The project represents significant capital expenditure on infrastructure that is currently unproductive, signaling potential for stranded assets and inefficient resource allocation.
  • The situation highlights a critical disconnect between infrastructure development and market readiness, indicating potential policy or strategic planning failures.
  • For developers and large power consumers, this case exemplifies the risks associated with large-scale energy transition projects that outpace the establishment of a viable supply-demand ecosystem.

Topics

emissionsfinancinginterconnectpolicy

Article Content

Germany’s 400 km hydrogen backbone segment is now pressurized, full of fossil hydrogen, and waiting. There are no meaningful suppliers connected to it and no contracted offtakers drawing molecules out. That fact alone makes it worth slowing down and doing the accounting carefully, because large infrastructure decisions do not become ... [continued] The post When Steel Outlives Strategy: The Climate Cost of Germany’s Hydrogen Pipeline appeared first on CleanTechnica .