Fig. 1: Overview of considered import options into Europe.

a shows the regional differences in the cost to deliver green methanol to Europe (choropleth layer), the cost composition of different import vectors (bar charts), an illustration of the wind and solar availability in Morocco, and an illustration of the land eligibility analysis for wind turbine placement in the region of Buenos Aires in Argentina. b depicts considered potential entry points for energy imports into Europe like the location of existing and planned liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals and gas pipeline entry points, the lowest costs of hydrogen imports in different European regions (choropleth layer), and the considered connections for long-distance high-voltage direct current (HVDC) import links and hydrogen pipelines from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, Turkey, Ukraine and Central Asia. c displays the distribution and range of import costs for different energy carriers and entry points with indications for selected origins from the TRACE model (violin charts), i.e., differences in identically coloured markers are due to regional differences in the transport costs to alternative entrypoints. These are more variable for liquid hydrogen as transport distance is a more substantial cost factor for this import vector. Costs are given for techno-economic assumptions for 2040. Supplementary Fig. 3 shows the world map for the lowest hydrogen import costs by pipeline or ship into Europe. Source data are provided as a Source Data file. Maps made with Natural Earth. Subnational regions created from geoBoundaries¹³³. LH₂ = liquefied hydrogen; PV = photovoltaics.