While Estonia is planning a large-scale green hydrogen transit corridor, the project has encountered strong competition — companies from several countries, including Finland’s Gasgrid, want to build a direct pipeline along the floor of the Baltic Sea from Finland to Germany.
On March 23 of this year, the government initiated a special national planning process to identify the most suitable corridor for a hydrogen pipeline crossing mainland Estonia. According to Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications (MKM) project manager Monika Korolkov, the process is still in its very early stages, with meetings currently underway with local municipalities to introduce the project and hydrogen technology.
The first phase of the special planning process is expected to cost around €1.5 million and a public procurement tender to find a consultant will be announced shortly. Korolkov explained that the initial planning area is based on a proposal by TSO Elering, taking into account the existing gas infrastructure and electricity grid.
More specific alternative route corridors running northward toward Latvia are expected to be identified by early next year. At present, the special planning process includes 24 municipalities, from Jõelähtme to rural municipalities in southern Estonia.
Just a few weeks later, on April 9, an agreement was signed in Riga that could fundamentally reshape the existing plans: Germany’s leading gas infrastructure company GASCADE, German state-owned energy group SEFE (Securing Energy for Europe) and the Baltic Sea Hydrogen Collector (BHC) consortium, which brings together Finnish and Swedish developers, officially announced cooperation on building a major hydrogen trunk pipeline directly along the floor of the Baltic Sea from Finland to Germany.
Read more: ERR.EE
