Czech hydrogen development outlook dims; southern backbone project pushed beyond 2040

In its new ten-year transmission system development plan for 2027-36, NET4GAS forecasts lower hydrogen consumption in Czechia and across the European Union in 2030 than in last year’s outlook. At the same time, construction of part of the country’s hydrogen backbone infrastructure is being pushed back. The WEST and NORTH projects are due to be completed in the early 2030s, while the southern branch did not make it into the 2027–2036 plan.

Last year’s NET4GAS plan adopted the National Trends+ scenario from the European TYNDP 2024 outlook. It estimated hydrogen demand in 2030 at 5 TWh in Czechia, 127 TWh in Germany and 484 TWh across the EU. This year’s plan is based on the central scenario in TYNDP 2026 and puts hydrogen consumption in the same year at 3 TWh in Czechia, 83 TWh in Germany and 260 TWh across the Union.

The decline is also evident in expected hydrogen production. The new outlook puts production in 2030 at 34 TWh in Germany and 188 TWh in the EU, compared with 61 TWh and 307 TWh, respectively, in last year’s outlook. Both scenarios assume zero production in Czechia in 2030.