Lake Constance region seeking to deliver economic boost through hydrogen

(CONNECT) The Institute for Energy Technology (IET) at OST – Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences has launched a new initiative to strengthen the hydrogen economy. Entitled “H2-Lab: Hydrogen Ecosystem Lake Constance-Alpine Rhine”, the project aims to bring together partners from the energy, logistics and shipping sectors with the aim of advancing the hydrogen economy across the region, as detailed in a statement. To this end, all participants convened for an internal project kick-off meeting in Buchs in the canton of St.Gallen, Switzerland, on June 17, 2026. Also present at the meeting were the politicians Marc Mächler, member of the St. Gallen cantonal government, Dr. Adi Gross, representative of the state government in Vorarlberg, Austria, and Hubert Büchel, member of the Government of the Principality of Liechtenstein.

The new project seeks to lower the barriers to a hydrogen economy in the Lake Constance-Alpine Rhine region. With eleven project partners and seventeen associated partners, the project will expand cross-border hydrogen trading, cross-border applications and above all a cross-border hydrogen network. This includes a connection to the Lindau hub, which is scheduled to be linked to Germany’s core hydrogen network by a pipeline from the north by 2032. The new hydrogen network is expected to deliver a boost to the region’s energy, truck transport and shipping sectors. The project is being funded by the EU, the Interreg Alpenrhein-Bodensee-Hochrhein (ABH) regional funding program and the Gas Research Fund of the Swiss Gas Industry Association (FOGA), as well as other partners from the four countries involved. “For the first time, key players from the energy sector, and specifically from the hydrogen sector, are being brought together – across national borders”, as Mächler explains in the statement. ce/ww