The first 525km of Germany’s hydrogen grid will be built this year, the Zeit Online website reports.

Some 507km will be converted from existing gas pipelines, and the rest will be purpose-built.

Next year, a further 142km of pipelines will be added to the networkas part of a medium-term plan to create a 9,000km core grid by 2032.

The private sector is expected to pay around €19bn to create the system.

In November, KfW, the state-owned development bank, approved a €24bn loan to support the construction of the network.

This money will be paid into an amortisation account and made available to the private companies that build and operate the network.

It’s designed to let them do the work despite the low returns they can expect in the first years of the project.

Germany’s Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) will oversee the asset, and will set a ceiling for network fees to create an incentive for customers to switch to hydrogen.

All the country’s states will be connected to the network, which will link production, storage and import nodes with industrial areas.

When the Federal Network Agency approved the plan in October 2024, economy minister Robert Habeck likened the hydrogen grid to the Autobahn network, with big main roads and smaller feeder roads.

BNetzA also approved around 1,400 kilometres of new power lines in 2024, more than double the previous year.