Land use plan (zone prohibition)

This LAP refers to the land use plan and analyses the legal requirements for building a centralised hydrogen production facility (including potential zone prohibition), identifies the authority responsible for delivering the land use permit, gives an estimate of the time needed to change the land use plan, and finally highlights if the permit process is uniform throughout the country.

Land-use planning is the general term used for a branch of urban planning encompassing various disciplines which seek to order and regulate land use in an efficient and ethical way, thus preventing land-use conflicts. Governments use land-use planning to manage the development of land within their jurisdictions.

From a land use perspective, the production of hydrogen is, in almost all partner countries, is regarded as an industrial activity, irrespective of the production method (even when produced from non-emitting methods such as water electrolysis), hence such activity would only be permitted in an area designated as an industrial zone or, in under specific conditions in commercial areas

Given that, traditionally, the production of hydrogen in large quantities (often the case for centralised production) has taken place through industrial processes such as steam methane reforming, the limitation of these activities to industrial zones is understandable. However, current legal and administrative processes would likely also relegate non-emitting production processes such as electrolysis to such zones, thereby unduly limiting the locations where such installations can be built