Together with Airbus, Andel, Aurubis, BASF, BeBa Energie, Chamber of Commerce Flensburg, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, COWI, Dansk Industri, Danfoss, European Energy, Everfuel, German-Danish Chamber of Commerce, GP Joule, Green Hydrogen Systems, Green Power Denmark, H2Energy Europe, MAN Energy Solutions, Niras, Plug Power, Rambøll, RWE, SaltPower, Siemens Energy, Stadtwerke Flensburg, STRING Megaregion, thyssenkrupp, Topsoe, TotalEnergies, Uniper, Vattenfall and Ørsted we discussed the needed actions for developing a green hydrogen market and infrastructure between Germany and Denmark at the first German-Danish Green Hydrogen Summit.

World leading green hydrogen market based on German offtake and Danish production

The companies are committed to developing a world-leading green hydrogen market. They strongly believe that green hydrogen and its derivatives have the potential to play a significant role towards a net zero emission economy. Combined, Germany and Denmark have all the necessary capabilities to provide electrolysis, develop production, transportation, and use of large scale green hydrogen before 2030. They recognize the urgent need for developing hydrogen offtake and infrastructure to facilitate the development of green hydrogen.

European 2030-visions for green hydrogen need strong leadership now

The European target on renewable hydrogen production in REPowerEU is 10 million ton (330 TWh hydrogen) in 2030. The existing German industrial hydrogen demand is the largest in any European country (55 TWh yearly), and the long term German hydrogen demand is projected to increase significantly towards 2050. The German national hydrogen strategy states a demand for imports of 45-90 TWh hydrogen by 2030, and 1 million ton (30 TWh) nationally produced hydrogen. Hence, the industrial users in Germany holds a unique opportunity to lead the way towards a large scale green hydrogen market with associated significant CO2 reductions.

The Danish export potential in 2030 for Germany alone is expected to be 16 TWh (corresponding to approx. 4.5 GW of electrolysis capacity, of the 4-6 GW that has been politically decided to produce).

Call for a German-Danish hydrogen infrastructure in 2028, ramping up of electrolyser capacity, and additional funding to accelerate market offtake

To realise these potentials, deliver on the EU and national targets, and sustain Northern Europe as an industrial hot spot for green energy transition, we call for the German and Danish governments to advance the intended hydrogen infrastructure and the joint letter of intent, connecting our two countries’ supply and demand side by 2028. The final investment decision of the cross border hydrogen infrastructure must be taken in the middle of 2024 to realise the deployment of the announced hydrogen infrastructure capacity between Germany and Denmark by 2028.

We the German and Danish industries are ready to deliver on both EU and national green hydrogen targets. The availability of competitive green hydrogen, at scale, in time, is key in fueling the transition.

Find the Declaration here.