Czech Republic and Bavaria deepen cooperation on the development of the hydrogen economy

The Minister of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic, Jozef Síkela, signed a joint declaration with the Bavarian Minister of Economics, Hubert Aiwanger, on Czech-Bavarian cooperation in the field of hydrogen.

The Czech and Bavarian ministers met at the beginning of May in Sokolov at the BMW Smart Mobility Test Centre. On that occasion, they signed a Letter of Intent for cooperation involving the construction of hydrogen infrastructure, the use of hydrogen in transport, in the energy sector for electricity or heat production and also in industry.

“Bavaria has a hydrogen strategy that combines high technology, innovation and climate protection. We want to link it with the Czech efforts. It will also involve linking the planned German hydrogen backbone with hydrogen infrastructure on the Czech side. Minister Síkela and I agreed that the start-up of the hydrogen economy should be seen from a European perspective,” Aiwanger said on the occasion.

In the signed document, both sides appreciated the cooperation of the transmission system operators on the German and Czech side and their joint efforts in preparing applications for PCI status for the Czech German Hydrogen Interconnector (CGHI), Central European Hydrogen Corridor (CEHC) and SunsHyne Corridor projects. All three above-mentioned projects are part of the European Hydrogen Backbone (EHB) vision, which identified key hydrogen transport corridors.

The belief in their relevance is also demonstrated by the signed Letter of Intent for hydrogen cooperation, which sees the projects as a way to diversify the supply of hydrogen from third countries, which is as important for the development of the hydrogen economy as the development of hydrogen production in the region.