The Role of Hydrogen Connected to the Existing Natural Gas Infrastructure in the Hungarian Energy Transition

Electricity from renewable energy sources aimed at promoting a carbon-free economy can be one of the pillars of the European Union's climate policy ambitions. In this, green hydrogen is a fundamental element of an integrated energy system and a hydrogen economy. In its hydrogen strategy, the European Commission recognised that underground hydrogen storage is needed to strike a balance between future energy systems that rely heavily on renewable energy sources in order to ensure security of supply. REPowerEU also quantified this in its announcement, aiming to achieve 20 million tons of green hydrogen supply in its member states by 2030. On the demand side, it is necessary to comply with higher peaks in electricity demand created by residual load. After a general overview of hydrogen strategies of Europe and Hungary the authors determined possibilities for replacing natural gas demand with hydrogen depending on potential green hydrogen production capacities of the country.