Gasunie Sets Milestone for Energy Transition and Security of Supply With Expansion of Achim into International Energy Hub

Gasunie is investing heavily in the expansion of its Achim site in order to secure the energy supply in Germany and neighbouring countries from Niedersachsen and to drive forward the transformation to a hydrogen economy. In Achim, the course is being set for a sustainable and future-proof energy infrastructure.

Niedersachsens Minister for Economic Affairs, Grant Hendrik Tonne, saw this for himself at the beginning of September during his visit to the construction site in Achim-Embsen. An international energy hub is being built there. This includes a new, electrically powered compressor station and two major pipeline projects, and will play a key role in shaping the energy future of Niedersachsen and north-western Europe. Already today, almost one in five kilowatt hours of gas consumed in Germany flows through Achim. This figure is set to increase even further in the future. The site serves as a direct distribution point for international gas flows from the Netherlands, Norway and LNG import terminals, passing the energy on to national and international distribution grids.

The new, electrically powered Achim West compressor station, which is scheduled to go into operation at the end of December 2026, is considered a key project in the context of north-western European energy supply. With an investment of around 250 million euros, foundation and civil engineering work has begun on the approximately seven-hectare site.

The energy transport pipeline (ETL) 182 takes the gas landed at the LNG terminal sites in Stade and Brunsbüttel and transports it from a feed-in point south of the Elbe to Achim. From here, the gas is fed into the existing German gas grid and is also reliably available to industry and households in Niedersachsen. The construction of the 86 km long pipeline is currently in the planning approval stage and is scheduled for completion in 2027. In addition, Gasunie is planning to build and operate ETL 187, an approximately 38 km long hydrogen pipeline between the Achim-Embsen compressor station and the Lehringen station south-east of Verden. The pipeline is part of the nationwide hydrogen core grid, which was approved in autumn 2024. It will thus contribute to the decarbonisation of the German economy.

‘In Niedersachsen, we are continuing to invest in our high-performance, cross-border infrastructure that connects producers, consumers and storage facilities – for both natural gas and hydrogen. This makes our grid the heart of supply security and the energy transition in north-western Europe,’ said Britta van Boven, Managing Director of Gasunie Deutschland.