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How Germany’s LNG Terminals Will Morph Into Green Hydrogen Hubs
Germany is building more LNG terminals to make up for the loss of Russian gas. In a few years, some of that infrastructure could be used to handle green fuels that power grids and heat homes.
Anna Shiryaevskaya
May 12, 2022, 1:00 a.m. EDT
The invasion of Ukraine has put the US and Europe on a wartime mission to abandon Russian fossil fuels. This series looks at speeding up zero-carbon alternatives by lowering political and financial barriers. Sign up here to get the next story sent to your inbox.
Germany plans to
abandon fossil-fueled power by 2035. But instead of shutting down natural gas infrastructure, it’s speeding up construction of several new terminals that will allow companies to import the planet-warming fuel by ship for decades to come.
The plans are aimed at breaking Europe’s reliance on gas piped in from Russia, of which Germany is the biggest buyer, after its
invasion of Ukraine. Because land-based terminals take several years to build, the government has also rented
floating facilities that can start receiving liquefied natural gas as soon as this year.
To reconcile the rush to procure gas with the government’s ambitious net-zero plan, Germany wants each of the proposed terminals to eventually handle
carbon-free fuels imported from countries such as Australia and the United Arab Emirates. The compromise allows Germany to address the current
energy crunch while planning for an emissions-free future. Companies can import LNG for a few years to make up for the loss of Russian gas, then use some of the same infrastructure to handle green fuels that can power grids and heat homes. But the mechanics of making that switch are complicated, and, at this stage, largely theoretical.
The rest is here:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...o-turn-lng-terminals-into-green-hydrogen-hubs