Land use plan (zone prohibition)

This LAP refers to the land use plan and analyses the legal requirements for storing hydrogen (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.

Hydrogen storage units can only be installed in locations where such activities are allowed by applicable land use plans. In most of the countries those locations are industrial areas, or commercial areas.

Limiting the storage of hydrogen to industrial zones, without careful considerations to the amount of hydrogen stored (e.g. below the volume necessary for the well-functioning of a hydrogen refuelling station, micro – CHP or any other application which uses hydrogen outside the “traditional’, industrial uses of the gas is a major barrier to the deployment of these application.