© Thyssengas
Germany’s planned hydrogen core pipeline network drew capacity reservation requests totaling approximately 2.9 GW from 32 companies within weeks of the reservation phase opening on 19 March 2026, exceeding the expectations of network operators.
Early Demand Signals Market Confidence in Infrastructure Roll-out
The bookings represent roughly a third of the network’s total planned capacity of 7.7GW for 2027 — the earliest scheduled start of use — and include an additional 0.6GW in requests for cross-cluster transport. Most submissions have already received formal reservation offers, with the remainder under review. “The fact that demand is already so high shortly after the start clearly shows how important the core network is for the market ramp-up in Germany,” said Barbara Fischer, managing director of FNB Gas, the association of German gas transmission system operators.
A Network Built to Scale
The 9,041-kilometre core network is designed to connect hydrogen production and consumption clusters across Germany, with planned capacity rising from 4.5GW in 2026 to 15.9GW in 2028 and 25.9GW by 2030. Operations involve 22 companies, including Belgian pipeline operator Fluxys, Dutch grid operator Gasunie, and German transmission operator Thyssengas. Where reservation requests exceed published capacity on a given route, operators apply a structured case-by-case review process — one that, according to OGE, a network operator, has so far yielded a positive outcome in every instance reviewed.
Overbuilding Risk Casts a Shadow
The early subscription figures arrive against a backdrop of persistent scepticism about the pace of underlying hydrogen demand. A report published earlier this month by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis warned that Germany risks saddling taxpayers with up to €45 billion ($53 billion) in excess public spending by building out pipeline infrastructure ahead of actual offtake. The IEEFA argued that Germany’s target of 10GW of installed electrolyser capacity by 2030 “looks distant” and that sections of pipeline already constructed sit largely idle, with no customers connected and no supply contracted.
Implications for Policy and Investment
The reservation data will nonetheless offer policymakers and investors a clearer signal that industrial appetite for hydrogen transport capacity is real, even if early. For the hydrogen sector, which has struggled to move from political ambition to bankable projects, confirmed capacity bookings — particularly from companies spanning the full value chain — provide a basis for longer-term investment decisions in production and end-use applications. Whether the volume of reservations translates into contracted offtake, and at what pace, will be the critical test of whether Germany’s infrastructure-first approach proves prescient or premature.
