Italy, Germany, Austria, Algeria and Tunisia signed in Rome a joint declaration of intent on the Southern Hydrogen Corridor, an infrastructure project to transport renewable hydrogen more than 3,300 kilometers from North Africa to Italy, Austria and Germany.

The countries declared their intention to continue work on the development of the SoutH2 Corridor during the first Penta Ministerial Meeting, organized by the Italy’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security.

SoutH2 aims to supply competitive renewable hydrogen to European demand clusters. It utilizes more than 65% repurposed infrastructure, with new pipeline segments where necessary. The corridor has political endorsement, as well as strong support from companies involved in production (c. 2.5 Mtpa) and offtake of hydrogen along the whole corridor.

The SoutH2 Corridor project is led by the TSOs Snam, TAG, GCA and bayernets, the individual projects of which have been granted PCI status by being included in the 1st PCI/PMI list under the revised TEN-E Regulation published by the EU Commission on 8 April 2024.

With a hydrogen import capacity of 4 Mtpa from North Africa, the corridor could deliver more than 40% of the REPowerEU import target.

The SoutH2 Corridor, which is expected to be fully operational as early as 2030, consists of the following individual PCI project candidates:

• “Italian H2 Backbone” promoted by Snam Rete Gas

• “H2 Readiness of the TAG pipeline system” promoted by TAG GmbH

• “H2 Backbone WAG + Penta-West" promoted by Gas Connect Austria GmbH

• “HyPipe Bavaria – The Hydrogen Hub” promoted by bayernets GmbH