The online talk "Development of a hydrogen market - what are the next steps?" on 11 April 2025 focused on the key hurdles and associated solutions for establishing a hydrogen market. Prof Dr Charlotte Kreuter-Kirchhof, energy law expert, and Prof DI Dr Alfons Haber, CEO of E-Control, were "guided" through the extremely entertaining discussion by questions from the moderator, Dr Carola Millgramm.

Hydrogen (H2) will play a decisive role in the energy transformation as it can compensate for fluctuations in renewables (RES) in electricity generation on the one hand and enable the decarbonisation of the so-called "hard to abate" sectors on the other. As Germany is seen as a pioneer in the ramp-up (currently still in the start-up phase) of an H2 industry, E-Control believes that an exchange of expertise can/will result in a win-win situation for both sides.

Taking into account the well-known hurdles for an H2 ramp-up such as

• lack of competitiveness of H2 compared to fossil fuels,
• extremely ambitious timeline with regard to the use of H2 (climate neutrality by 2045 in Germany and 2040 in Austria)
• required import (in Germany between 50-70%) thus increased risks

the so-called H2 starter network in Germany was discussed. In order to be able to offer initially competitive transport infrastructure tariffs for H2 consumers - i.e. not to introduce prohibitively high infrastructure usage tariffs - a so-called amortisation account is being introduced. This means that revenues will only increase over time and will eventually reach break-even with the annual costs in order to balance the required total costs - consisting of the total capital costs derived from the investments made over time and the OPEX accumulated up to that point - by 2055. Should the H2 ramp-up fail, the grid operators are to bear 24% of the investments incurred and not yet covered as a "deductible" in order to share the considerable risks among the players involved. The extent to which those companies in "hard to abate" sectors that have switched to H2 by then could be relieved of the risk in the event of the failure of the H2 industry has not (yet) been explained. The H2 storage facilities required for the start-up/ramp-up and the associated implementation time (editor's note: > 5 years) were mentioned, but solutions have not yet been identified.

In this context, it should be mentioned that the colour of H2 - with the exception of grey H2 - is not to play a role in Germany until 2055. CCUS, i.e. "blue" H2, is to play a significant role in the H2 ramp-up. This shows that coordination between the H2 and CCS infrastructure is essential. With the exception of the Net Zero Industry Act, the necessary legal basis for this does not exist at either European or member state level.

As the legal basis does not currently exist in Austria for either the H2 ramp-up or the CCS infrastructure, E-Control - within the scope of its current competences - is attempting to make the preparations for the H2 industry as well and efficiently as possible in cooperation with the relevant players. During the meeting, CEO Haber referred to the start of the consultation on the key points of a hydrogen target market model .

The editorial team would like E-Control to continue these informative and important energy discussions in the same high quality.