The European Network of Network Operators for Hydrogen (ENNOH) and the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Gas (ENTSOG) have published a joint report outlining practical options to de-risk investment in Europe’s future hydrogen infrastructure, highlighting hydrogen’s key role in Europe’s energy transition and industrial decarbonisation.
The report responds to a mandate from the Copenhagen Energy Infrastructure Forum 2025 and was presented during a dedicated hydrogen session at the Copenhagen Energy Infrastructure Forum 2026.
Prepared with support from Frontier Economics and facilitated by the Copenhagen School of Energy Infrastructure, the report assesses financing conditions for cross-border hydrogen infrastructure and identifies practical solutions to address investment barriers during the market ramp-up phase.
Addressing the investment challenge
As Europe moves towards a hydrogen-based energy system, infrastructure will need to be developed ahead of a fully mature market. This creates a financing challenge, as revenues from early capacity bookings are unlikely to meet investor expectations in the initial phase.
The report assesses eight de-risking and financing mechanisms, evaluating how effectively they address the challenge of anticipatory cross-border investment.
Based on this analysis, ENNOH and ENTSOG put forward two concrete EU-level proposals:
- Inter-temporal Cost Allocation (ICA) combined with an EU guarantee
- Long-term capacity bookings combined with an EU guarantee
Both proposals are designed to reduce investor risk while supporting long-term market development and cross-border integration.
“This report marks an important step in identifying practical ways to de-risk cross-border hydrogen infrastructure investments. It assesses how existing regulatory and financing tools could be combined with an additional EU-level de-risking mechanism to be developed, including the role of an EU guarantee. ENNOH stands ready to continue working to further assess and refine this concept.” — Abel Enríquez, ENNOH Director.
Supporting Europe’s hydrogen development
The report also draws on practical experience from hydrogen infrastructure developments in Germany, the Netherlands, and Denmark, and is based on an extensive stakeholder engagement process, including workshops, expert discussions, and a public consultation conducted in spring 2026.
In addition to comparing financing mechanisms, the report highlights how hydrogen infrastructure development differs from the historical development of the natural gas network, underlining the need for anticipatory investment and new regulatory approaches.
The report concludes with four core findings and identifies three key conditions necessary to operationalise the proposed solutions successfully, providing policymakers, regulators, and market participants with a pathway to support the coordinated development of Europe’s future hydrogen infrastructure.
The report is available here (3.28 MB) "pdf".