Germany and Norway want to produce and use more clean energy together. Both countries on Thursday entered into deals on, among other things, hydrogen, offshore wind farms and underground CO2 storage.
Until recently, Germany was heavily dependent on Russia for its energy supply. Now that the Russians are hardly supplying any more gas, the Germans have to look for other suppliers. Norway has thus become the most important gas supplier for Germany. Another factor is that the eastern neighbors want to make their economy more sustainable
For example, Germany wants to build power plants in the future that supply energy produced with sustainably produced hydrogen. The hydrogen should therefore come from Norway.
The condition is that there is a pipeline with which hydrogen can be transported from Norway to Germany. Norwegian pipeline operator Gassco is currently studying the feasibility of this. If all goes to plan, the pipeline could be commissioned in 2030.
The two countries also want to make it possible to capture and store CO2 underground. This is currently still banned in Germany, but there are plans to change the law next year. “It is better to have CO2 underground than in the atmosphere,” German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said in a statement.
