The past year was highly impactful for the EHB and as 2022 comes to an end and the new year begins, so begins a new chapter in the European Hydrogen Backbone consortium. The EHB is thrilled to announce that Ms. Sara Kärki from Gasgrid Finland Oy and Ms. Maria Sicilia from Enagás will take the lead of the EHB consortium in a dual chairmanship as current chairman Daniel Muthmann has announced to step down.
The success of EHB in this past year can be summarized to many important achievements: the consortium developed leading-edge publications for hydrogen infrastructure as response to REPowerEU and engaged relevant players across the hydrogen value chain and the European Commission on the EHB Day.
The consortium is beyond grateful for the current chairman Daniel Muthmann’s steady stewardship and his persistent efforts which helped drive the success of the European Hydrogen Backbone initiative. Daniel Muthmann has been supporting and initiating the initiative in 2019, standing as a founding pillar in its three years of growth. Under his chairmanship the initiative has grown to a membership of 31 gas Transmission System Operators across Europe.
“Building entire value chains for hydrogen requires efficient cooperation of many stakeholders and confidence in the technical feasibility and commercialization. My starting point for starting this initiative was precisely that: adding important pieces to the jigsaw puzzle so that the future potential becomes visible and confidence is rising, especially with regard to the capabilities of the existing gas infrastructure to enable an upscaling of hydrogen in Europe” “I’m also very happy to welcome the new chairwomen to carry forward EHB work in the new year’s programme”
According to María Sicilia, Strategy and Planning Director at Enagás, the Spanish gas transmission system operator, “the European TSOs are called upon to play a very relevant role in achieving the decarbonisation objectives and are a clear example of cooperation and multilateralism between European countries. The next few years it will be key to making progress in the development of the European Hydrogen Backbone as a key element in advancing energy independence in Europe”.
“Hydrogen is a key technology for diversifying energy supply, improving energy security and resilience of the European energy system. European Hydrogen Backbone group has shown the possibility to react to the major changes in the energy sector with forward looking collaboration. It will be a privilege to continue the excellent EHB work together with the group and other stakeholders.” says Sara Kärki, Head of Strategic Analysis & RDI at Gasgrid Finland Oy, the Finnish gas transmission system operator.
On behalf of the consortium, we wish you happy holidays and a happy new year.
