400 km Wasserstoffpipeline ohne Nutzer wird Deutschlands Strompreise erhöhen* - CleanTechnica

Germany has recently completed and pressurized the first approximately 400 km segment of its national hydrogen backbone pipeline, which is technically operational with functioning compressors and buried pipelines. However, a significant issue remains: there are no substantial hydrogen suppliers connected, nor are there contractually committed consumers. This is not a temporary delay but a structural demand failure. The costs of this infrastructure will persist for decades and will ultimately be passed on to consumers through higher electricity prices. The initial political vision for the hydrogen backbone was to create a roughly 9,000 km national transmission network designed to supply 10 to 20 GW corridors, replacing natural gas across multiple sectors such as steel, chemicals, transport fuels, dispatchable power generation, and heavy industry. The assumed hydrogen demand in political documents and commissioned studies rapidly rose to between 100 and 130 TWh by 2030 and beyond, making the national backbone seem plausible at that scale. However, a key analytical error in European hydrogen policy is the misuse of energy units (