Germany's Hydrogen Pipeline Network Is Three Years Behind Schedule and the Industry That Depends on It Is Running Out of Time

The German government's flagship hydrogen infrastructure programme — a 9,700-kilometre network of repurposed natural gas pipelines intended to carry green hydrogen to industrial consumers by 2030 — has completed 340 kilometres of conversion work. At the current pace, the network will not be operational until 2038, leaving steel, chemical, and cement producers without the clean energy input they have already committed to in their own decarbonisation plans.