Sign up for daily news updates from CleanTechnica on email. Or follow us on Google News!
US President Trump and President in all-but-name Elon Musk have not gotten around to pulling the US out of NATO yet, but the nations of Europe are not waiting around to see what happens next. Germany, for example, is among those actively hardening their defenses as Russia continues ravaging Ukraine. European nations are also stepping up efforts to shed fossil energy ties with Russia, and a new green hydrogen corridor is part of the plan.
Green Hydrogen To Support The Nordic-Baltic Hydrogen Corridor
The new Nordic-Baltic Hydrogen Corridor corridor will link the three Baltic states at the Russian border — Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia — with Finland, Poland, and Germany. The Polish gas firm GAZ-SYSTEM emphasizes that the new corridor aims to support the European energy transition with a green hydrogen platform. Green hydrogen refers to hydrogen produced from water in electrolysis systems, deploying electricity from renewable resources.
Renewable hydrogen can also be extracted from biomass, wastewater, and other non-fossil resources, but much of the investor activity is currently focused on water electrolysis (see more hydrogen background here).
“The objective of the Nordic-Baltic Hydrogen Corridor project is to create a connection between the regions with high potential for green energy production in Northern Europe with the main consumption centres in Central Europe,” GAZ-SYSTEM explained.
In a press statement last year, GAZ-SYSTEM emphasized that the new corridor will leverage local resources to provide its partners with “safe supplies of green hydrogen”
“It will promote the development of renewable electricity production, utilisation of renewable energy sources, accelerate hydrogen economy development and contribute to the achievement of European climate goals,” the company elaborated.
More Green Hydrogen For Europe
If all goes according to plan, the new green hydrogen network will be up and running by 2030. All parties to the agreement already have a running start including the three Baltic states.
Last summer, the EU organization Interreg Baltic Sea Region noted that Lithuania plans to “lead the Baltic region in green hydrogen, achieving energy independence and becoming an energy exporter.”
“The main offtakers for hydrogen are expected to be fertilizer and refinery producers, the transport sector, and export markets,” Interreg Baltic Sea added.
Not to be outdone, last summer Estonia announced plans to create the first nationwide, integrated hydrogen network featuring green hydrogen.
Similarly, in September the Latvia Ministry of Economics announced that “all of Latvia can be considered one large hydrogen valley.”
“Latvia has great potential to produce hydrogen and its derivatives using renewable energy resources. This is a crucial direction to achieve our goal of making Latvia’s economy more productive and export-oriented,” the agency emphasized.
What’s All This About The Cost Of Green Hydrogen?
Working against all these plans, of course, is the high cost of green hydrogen compared to conventional hydrogen sourced from natural gas.
Nevertheless, Germany, France, and other European nations were already developing green hydrogen networks before Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. Now they have have the example of Ukraine and the threat of losing the US as a NATO member to spur them along.
The near term potential for reducing costs has also improved, now that iridium-free and low-iridium catalysts are making their way to the electrolyzer industry. Last month, for example, the firms Mattiq and Heraeus Precious Metals announced a development collaboration for low-iridium catalysts, beginning with the electrolyzer market.
Other cost-reducing pathways are also suggested by hydrogen advocates in the UK, who are focusing attention on reducing the cost of renewable energy for electrolyzer systems, and by the demand aggregation model introduced by the new First Public Hydrogen Authority in California.
Long-term green hydrogen solutions include bacteria-based hydrogen extraction systems, such as one under development at the University of Oxford, and new “artificial leaf” photoelectrochemical systems that mimic photosynthesis.
The green hydrogen industry is also beginning to dovetail with the e-fuels industry. In one recent development, researchers at Cambridge University have deployed low cost perovskite solar cells in an artificial leaf with a copper catalyst, capable of producing complex hydrocarbons for liquid fuels from water.
The Undersea Cable War Is Already Under Way
In another signal that Russian aggression is building to a head of steam throughout Europe, on February 8th the three Baltic nations will separate from the Russian electricity grid and synchronize with the Continental Europe Network on February 9th.
As described by Atlantic Council Senior Fellow Justina Budginaite-Froehly on February 5, the grid decoupling plan has been on the drawing boards since 2007. Completion of the plan marks the “final chapter” of Russian involvement in Baltic energy systems, an ongoing effort that enabled the Baltic states to stop importing Russian gas just two months after Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
“But the Baltic states and their NATO allies must now work to secure this hard-won energy independence from Russia’s ongoing hybrid attacks on critical energy infrastructure,” Budginaite-Froehly warns, taking note of the vulnerability of land-based infrastructure as well as a recent series of 11 episodes involving damage to undersea connections in the Baltic Sea, caused by vessels dragging their anchors. Many of these episodes have reportedly been linked to Russia’s “shadow fleet,” including damage to a gas pipeline between Estonia and Finland as well as communications, data, and power cables linking Baltic states with points West.
“The Lithuanian government is responding with increased military involvement in protecting critical seaborne energy infrastructure under the Baltic Sea amid an attempted sabotage of the NordBalt power cable that connects it to Sweden,” Budginaite-Froehly added, also noting that NATO has responded as well.
Earth To US: Come In, Please
The series of suspicious incidents involving undersea cables is also rippling out to the emerging Baltic Sea offshore wind industry. Nations all around the coast have been laying plans for offshore wind to complement their green hydrogen plans, but concerns are beginning to rise. In November, for example, Sweden cited security concerns when it rejected a sprawling offshore wind plan, though the country is still adding to its roster of green hydrogen facilities on land.
Further complicating matters is Russia’s nuclear-armed Baltic Fleet, which is headquartered in the country’s Kaliningrad Oblast on the Baltic Sea. Kaliningrad is separated from the rest of Russia by Poland and Lithuania. According to a report in Euractive, when the Baltic states sync up with Europe, Kaliningrad will lose its electricity connection with Russia and will be forced to operate in island mode.
Russia could declare that the grid cutoff is another act of aggression, following other travel and transportation obstacles imposed by Poland and Lithuania after the invasion of Ukraine. For that matter, Ukraine has laid green H2 plans of its own, having decoupled from the Russian grid shortly after the invasion to sync up with Europe.
Ukraine laid the groundwork for the quick switch prior to the invasion, with an assist from the Biden administration. Well, that was then. Putin will certainly not sit on his hands now that he has not one but two advocates in the Oval Office, both of whom have been acting as dictators.
If you think dictators should not be running the federal government, you can share your opinion with your representatives in Congress.
Follow me via LinkTree, or @tinamcasey on LinkedIn and Bluesky.
Image (cropped): Despite — or because of — the threat of war with Russia looming overhead, a new green hydrogen corridor will link the three Baltic states with Europe (courtesy of GAZ-SYSTEM).
Chip in a few dollars a month to help support independent cleantech coverage that helps to accelerate the cleantech revolution!
Have a tip for CleanTechnica? Want to advertise? Want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.
Sign up for our daily newsletter for 15 new cleantech stories a day. Or sign up for our weekly one if daily is too frequent.
CleanTechnica uses affiliate links. See our policy here.
CleanTechnica’s Comment Policy