Speaker
Description
The use of hydrogen will play a central role in achieving climate neutrality. The decarbonisation of energy-intensive industries as well as the power and transport sectors will only be possible by using high-energetic synthetic energy storages, like hydrogen. With storage options for volatile renewable energy production, hydrogen is an integral part of sector coupling and thus an important factor in the transformation of energy systems (Hamacher 2017, Geitmann et al. 2021). It will not only contribute to climate mitigation by directly reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but also decrease energy dependency and therefore strengthen the resilience of energy systems. With the expected increase in hydrogen production and imports, the need for a sustainable hydrogen supply chain and the development of a safe and efficient distribution infrastructure is at the forefront.
The development of a nationwide hydrogen infrastructure in Germany is associated with significant investments and considerable uncertainty during the planning process, as the capacities and locations of hydrogen supply and demand are not yet determined precisely enough (BMWK 2023). This poses major challenges onto the governance of hydrogen infrastructures, which require a stable and long-term framework for initial investments. As a result, national hydrogen deployment is currently limited to technical test facilities and local pilot projects. Furthermore, formalised planning procedures lead to delays in the development process, due to a lack of standardisation and automation in the process of identifying conflicts of spatial utilisation and providing the relevant data (Runkel 2018). However, the use of existing natural gas pipelines for hydrogen distribution is cost-effective and has the potential to reduce the required investments and accelerate the planning process (Lipiäinen et al. 2023).
The development of regional hydrogen infrastructures requires the implementation of new planning methods and tools that facilitate the sustainable development of these infrastructures and take into account their specific requirements (e. g. regarding safety issues). As the optimal design of hydrogen infrastructures depends on many local factors such as the type of major industries, existing infrastructure or geographical conditions, a comprehensive and multidisciplinary planning approach is needed, which is currently lacking (Mendler et al. 2025). Therefore, it is important to develop a hydrogen-oriented methodology for conducting future sustainability assessments, in order to facilitate a network-oriented planning of regional hydrogen infrastructures. Furthermore, it is crucial to identify relevant sustainability criteria for this assessment. The aim of this contribution is to define requirements and describe fundamentals for the development of a transferable sustainability model that integrates energy policy objectives (environmental compatibility, economic efficiency, security of supply), safety requirements and spatial planning issues. This will enable a holistic assessment and accelerate the planning process.
This article presents the findings of a comprehensive literature review on sustainability criteria. It also presents a methodological approach for the development of a comprehensive sustainability model by using life cycle assessment. The approach is developed and applied in the Sauerland region as part of the ‘HydroNet’ project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action. The developed model can also be transferred to other regions in order to further accelerate the planning processes.
References
BMWK (2023) National Hydrogen Strategy Update. Berlin: Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK).
Geitmann, S. and Augsten, E. (2021) Wasserstoff und Brennstoffzellen – Die Technik von gestern, heute und morgen. 4th edn. Oberkrämer: Hydrogeit Verlag.
Hamacher, T. (2017) Wasserstoff als strategischer Energieträger, in Töpler, J. and Lehmann, J. (eds.) (2017) Wasserstoff und Brennstoffzelle – Technologien und Marktperspektiven, 2nd edn. Berlin: Springer Vieweg, pp.1–24.
Lipiäinen, S., Lipiäinen, K., Ahola, A., and Vakkilainen, E. (2023) Use of existing gas infrastructure in European hydrogen economy, International Journal on Hydrogen Energy, 48 (80), pp.31317–31329.
Mendler, F., Voglstätter, C., Müller, N., Smolinka, T., Holst, M., Hebling, C. and Koch, B. (2025) A newly developed spatially resolved modelling framework for hydrogen valleys – Methodology and functionality, Advances in Applied Energy, 17 (2025), pp.1–19.
Runkel, P. (2018) Fachplanungen, raumwirksame, in Academy for Territorial Development in the Leibniz Association (ARL) (ed.) Handwörterbuch der Stadt- und Raumentwicklung. Hannover: Verlag der ARL, pp.641–653.
| Keywords | Hydrogen infrastructure; Energy transition; Climate Mitigation; Planning methods; Sustainability assessment |
|---|---|
| Best Congress Paper Award | Yes |
