KfW will provide a 24 billion euro ($25 billion) loan to help develop a future hydrogen network in Germany, the state lender told Reuters, at a time when companies have warned that the technology will take longer than expected to take off.

Germany is betting on hydrogen, which can be used in part to replace natural gas, as it seeks to decarbonise the economy and find ways to absorb intermittent renewable supplies into the power grid.

A core 9,040-kilometer network for hydrogen, to be built by 2032, is an essential part of the planned shift to the fuel.

While existing natural gas pipelines will make up 60% of the network — connecting ports, industry, storage facilities and power plants — their operators and owners will still have to shoulder billions of euros in investments to either retrofit lines for hydrogen or build new ones.