The project partners of the Nordic Baltic Hydrogen Corridor (NBHC) – Finland’s Gasgrid, Estonia’s Elering, Latvia’s Conexus Baltic Grid, Lithuania’s Amber Grid, Poland’s GAZ-SYSTEM, and Germany’s ONTRAS have signed a grant agreement with the European Climate, Infrastructure, and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA) for the European Union (EU) financial support to the NBHC.
As disclosed, the maximum grant amount of €6.8 million will support the NBHC feasibility phase. The project partners said that the co-financing from the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) for cross-border energy infrastructure projects under the Trans-European Networks for Energy (TEN-E) will allow them to conduct feasibility studies that examine the technical, economic, regulatory, and environmental aspects of building a large-scale hydrogen pipeline network in the Baltic Sea region.
This phase is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2027, laying the groundwork for subsequent project development phases, the partners revealed, adding that as it gets underway, stakeholders across the public and private sectors will be invited to contribute to the process. It is understood that the corridor commissioning is estimated for the early 2030s.
To note, the NBHC aims to support the EU’s decarbonization targets by integrating renewable hydrogen across six member states. It could reduce carbon emissions by up to 37 million tons of CO2 equivalent per year by 2050, the partners pointed out, claiming that it will enhance energy security and supply diversity in the region and Europe, connecting indigenous renewable hydrogen production to existing and new demand centers, as well as contribute to the decarbonization of hard-to-abate sectors.
