Last week, the H2vorOrt initiative held a parliamentary event in Brussels to present their Gas Distribution Transformation Plan 2024 report. The event drew more than 50 attendees from both political and industrial sectors. The report was compiled with input from 252 DSOs covering 450,000 km of distribution pipes across the whole of Germany (around 80% of the total distribution grids).
H2vorOrt Chairman, Florian Feller, showed that the majority of the 1,000+ municipalities surveyed are relying on climate neutral gases, such as hydrogen as part of their future decarbonised energy plans, and that around two-thirds of more than 3,500 industry companies expect that hydrogen will be used in their operations in the future.
H2vorOrt is a member of the European-wide Ready4H2 initiative. Ready4H2 Chair, Thomas Muller, Director of Hydrogen at GRDF, spoke at the event and shared insights into France’s approach to hydrogen integration, showcasing the potential synergies with methanisation and progress in rolling out green gas production and transportation in France. He also shared an overview of the activities of the more than 70 Ready4H2 members in 10 EU Member States.
H2vorOrt’s representative to Ready4H2, Andreas Schick, CEO Netze Suedwest, emphasised the importance of the H2vorOrt work to the Ready4H2 project: “The results of the H2vorOrt project have clearly demonstrated the ability of the German DSOs to pave the way for hydrogen, and their willingness to do so, as part of the decarbonisation of energy in Germany. In Ready4H2, we are doing the same across 10 countries – showing that the DSOs are a key enabler of a connected hydrogen economy across Europe and therefore their role is not in question”.
The H2vorOrt report can be found here.
