Jutland hydrogen system could provide multi-billion kroner societal benefits – study

Danish TSO Energinet has found that a buried hydrogen system in Jutland connected to the German and central European markets could deliver benefits of DKK30-75 billion (US$4.4-11 billion) towards 2060.

While the figures are reported preliminary, given the newness of hydrogen in the Danish – and global – energy landscape, they are sufficient for the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Utilities to have given the go ahead to a maturation project for a Jutland hydrogen system, the first stages of which are expected to be ready in 2028.

When the studies are completed, Energinet will have to prepare an application for full establishment.

Preliminary figures for the project are that it will require an investment of between DKK10 billion and DKK22 billion (2023 prices) for the pipeline systems and compressor stations.

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“It is a large investment, but there can potentially be a significant socio-economic gain to be gained. Therefore, we would like to continue with the project and investigate it more thoroughly,” says Energinet’s CEO Thomas Egebo.

“Denmark has big plans to expand wind and solar energy, and part of the green power can be converted into hydrogen. It will help us, both at home and in the rest of Europe, to replace fossil fuels in heavy industry, shipping and aviation.”

He adds that a hydrogen infrastructure supports the political ambitions to expand offshore wind in the North Sea as even a significantly expanded electricity grid in Denmark and neighbouring countries would be unable to transport the large amounts of electricity that will be generated.

In its preparatory work Energinet also has worked with the German gas TSO, Gasunie, to investigate how Denmark can be connected to the future European hydrogen infrastructure and whether one of the two existing gas connections across the Danish-German border can be converted to hydrogen transport.

In the joint analysis the TSOs estimated that Danish hydrogen exports could reach 15TWh in 2030 and 79TWh by 2050.

The feasibility study, which investigated several different pipeline options, also found that hydrogen production could grow to 1.4 billion tonnes annually by 2030 and that hydrogen and power-to-X production could make up a large part of the future Danish electricity consumption.