SHIELD: Securing Europe’s Hydrogen Infrastructure for a Resilient Energy Future
As hydrogen emerges as a cornerstone of Europe’s decarbonisation strategy, the resilience of the infrastructure that will deliver it becomes a critical concern. The SHIELD project, funded with €1.6 million under the HORIZON-MSCA-SE programme, brings together leading institutions and experts to ensure that hydrogen infrastructure across Europe is prepared to withstand natural and manmade threats—from floods and wildfires to earthquakes and cyberattacks.
Hydrogen will play a vital role in Europe’s clean energy transition. Integrating hydrogen into existing and future energy networks—particularly by repurposing natural gas pipelines—offers great promise, but also poses new challenges. What happens when these systems face climate-driven hazards or security breaches? How can we ensure that this emerging infrastructure is designed for both safety and longevity?
SHIELD (Safety and resilience of Hydrogen Infrastructure under Extreme Loading and Disruption) addresses these questions through a multi-pronged research agenda. The project will:
🔹 Map hydrogen-related facilities and infrastructure across Europe, identifying potential vulnerabilities
🔹 Develop tools for real-time threat detection, whether natural or manmade
🔹 Propose enhanced technical and regulatory frameworks to secure critical hydrogen infrastructure
At its core, SHIELD applies the principles of resilience engineering—preparing systems to respond, adapt, and recover from disruptions, known or unforeseen. This forward-looking approach is crucial as hydrogen scales up as a pillar of Europe’s energy ecosystem.
The project is coordinated by Politecnico di Torino (Gian Paolo Cimellaro, Alessandro Cardoni) and brings together a consortium of esteemed partners:
FRAUNHOFER GESELLSCHAFT, Ivo Häring
FACTOR SOCIAL, Dalila Antunes, José Manuel Palma-Oliveira
ETH Zurich, Eleni Chatzi
SMARTEC SA, Daniele Inaudi
TU Delft, Maria Nogal
INEGI, Ricardo Barbosa, Isabel Azevedo
Instituto Tecnológico do Gás, João Trigueiros Ferreira
University of Liverpool, Luigi Di Sarno
HYLAB, Nuno Canha, Jorge Dinis
At ETH Zurich, our contribution focuses on developing monitoring and modelling methodologies for evaluating structural vulnerability and enhancing resilience assessment protocols.
The SHIELD project marks a decisive step toward ensuring that Europe’s hydrogen infrastructure is not only efficient but also robust and secure.