Infrastructure

Connecting the megaregion

Connecting the megaregion

Well functioning transport systems are the key drivers of economic growth, job creation and cultural exchange. The megaregion is dependent on effective, low or zero emission transport systems for the free movement of people, goods and competencies across borders. We have to counter the long travel times and current inadequate transport infrastructure that is hampering further economic integration and investments in Northern Europe. While the deployment of effective zero or low emission transport infrastructure both serves the purpose of connecting the megaregion while delivering on our climate goals, it also serves as a testbed for green transport technologies which further strengthens our ambitions as a globally acknolwedged green hub. 

To facilitate the green transition of the transport sector and create a fully interconnected cross-border megaregion, we are focusing our efforts on the following flagship projects.

Green hydrogen mobility

Deploy hydrogen refuelling infrastructure to electrify society 

Green hydrogen is hydrogen produced by using energy from renewable sources to split water into oxygen and hydrogen, in a process called electrolysis. Green hydrogen is part of STRINGs dual approach to electrify the transport sector. It is a clean energy carrier that delivers important answers to unsolved questions of renewable energy storage and the electrification of energy intensive activities like heavy duty transport.

Green Hydrogen

A hydrogen fuel cell vehicle uses the chemical energy of hydrogen to cleanly and efficiently produce electricity inside the fuel cell engine. The hydrogen fuel cell technology offers solutions to the unsolved issues of battery driven alternatives like lithium extraction value chains, missing links in the recycling of batteries, limited driving range and long charging times. Especially energy intensive activities like heavy-duty, long-range road transport will benefit from the establishment of hydrogen refuelling infrastructure.

The only byproducts from hydrogen vehicles are electricity, water, and heat, making green hydrogen mobility a zero-emission form of transport. Furthermore hydrogen is an innovative way to store clean energy. This means that green hydrogen provides storage for surplus renewable energy, which would otherwise be lost. Hydrogen production from surplus green energy effectively balances the sustainable energy grid, allowing us to store energy for a rainy day, when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine.

Double track railway standard

Increase speed on railways by implementing a double track standard

Railways are unmatched in their potential to reduce pollution and CO2 emission from the transport sector, and the technology has been around for more than a century. But certain stretches of the railway system within the STRING megaregion have only one track, which delays transport times and prevents railway transport from becoming a more competitive alternative to road transport. 

Investing in railways to support increasing demand for personal and freight transport on rails is a clean, green way of further connecting the STRING megaregion. More freight on rail supports the EU target of moving goods from road to rail, and the demand for efficient railway transport is expected to increase along with anticipated EU restrictions on diesel trucks which will be implemented over the coming years. STRING and it’s members work to make double track railways the standard across borders in the entire STRING megaregion, to keep the wheels turning in our economy with less particle pollution, traffic congestion and greenhouse gas emission.