On the way to climate neutrality, Belgium and Germany want to move even closer together in the future. For example, Belgium wants to double the capacity for supplying liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Germany.
Germany and Belgium want to deepen their cooperation on energy issues on the way to climate neutrality. “The past twelve months have once again impressively shown how important it is that we work closely together in Europe, especially on energy issues,” said Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) after a meeting with Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo.
Both came together at the port of Zeebrugge for the first German-Belgian energy meeting, which was primarily about how more energy can flow between the two countries in the future.
As De Croo has now announced, Belgium wants to double the capacity for supplying liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Germany. Work on this should start later this year. As a result of the loss of Russian gas in 2022, Belgium had become one of the most important suppliers for the Federal Republic. Delivery capacities were fully utilized over long stretches. According to De Croo, the resulting infrastructure should also be usable for hydrogen.
hydrogen
The liberal politician also announced that both countries want to connect their hydrogen infrastructure by 2028. “Through increased cooperation, we will increase the production of hydrogen for our economies and ensure that raw materials and energy are available for our industries,” said De Croo. He emphasized how closely German and Belgian industry are linked. Germany wants to become climate neutral by 2045, the EU has set itself the goal of 2050.
On the fringes of the meeting, the network operators Amprion from Germany and Elia from Belgium announced that they wanted to build another power line between the two countries. Both companies signed an agreement of intent according to which a second power bridge could be built by 2037. The course of this power bridge is still unclear, as an Amprion spokeswoman said.
The first power bridge had already gone into operation in 2020 with a capacity of around 1000 megawatts between Aachen and Liège. Scholz said it was of the utmost importance to expand the power grids so that one could help one another out. A large, linked market also makes it cheaper for consumers. This applies to electricity, but also to hydrogen in the future.
Source: Stern
