With the Russian occupation of Ukraine, the gas pipeline MidCat project, which will connect Spain to France, was dusted. Pyreneesparalyzed for years. One of the organizations that put the most pressure on the realization of this project was the Catalan employers’ association. workforce development. The government has embraced the idea that it will serve to transport green hydrogen in the future. After the last meeting of the presidents Pedro Sanchez, Emmanuel Macron (France) and Antonio Costa (Portugal), MidCat is history and the agreed alternative, christened BarMar, is an underwater pipeline between Barcelona and Marseille, baptized as BarMar, without disclosing many technical or financial details. carry green hydrogen and natural gas temporarily.
Connection
One of the main changes is that the connection will be established rather than via the Pyrenees, an idea that was rejected by the French president as it was found to be costly and would be operational in a few years. submarine. This 360km green corridor will connect the port of Barcelona to the port of Marseille, where the largest of the six regasification plants on the Iberian Peninsula (converting liquid gas transported by boat) is located. This will make it possible to transport gas from Algeria via the Iberian Peninsula and to France and from there to the rest of Europe. Therefore, Germany, forcing some kind of interconnection to reduce its high dependence on Russian gas, applauds the initiative. What seems to be denied is another underwater connection between them. Barcelona and the Italian port of LivornoIt is also requested by organizations such as Foment del Treball. To enable future interconnections of renewable resources, the agreement includes a commitment to complete the project linking Celourico da Beira and Zamora (CelZa) in Portugal.
raw materials
Another of the changes related to the MidCat, which is designed to transport gas and modify it so that it can circulate in it in the future. green Hydrogen, is to think backwards. In other words, it will carry green hydrogen, a non-polluting fuel obtained by using renewable energies in its production, and will be designed to circulate in the same natural gas in a transitional period in the first place.
founding
As with MidCat, one of the keys to the project is who or how it will be financed. Ecological Transition Minister Teresa Ribera argued that MidCat should be funded by the European Union (EU), as it is a European project. Not detailed in the BarMar case where will the money come from or who will finance it. This is an important issue. Spain bets on European funds. This will be one of the discussion points in the coming weeks. The cost of this infrastructure was also not disclosed.
winners and losers
Burying MidCat without any alternative, with a planned investment of more than 3,000 million euros in which Enagás will participate, would be a real defeat for Spain and Portugal, which also benefit from BarMar and will develop their interconnections with the Spanish network. With the proposed new infrastructure, French President Emmanuel Macron is preventing internal conflicts by burying a gas pipeline that must pass through a protected area. The presidents of Spain and Portugal, Pedro Sánchez and Antonio Costa, may ‘sell’ when they have reached a deal. connection with the rest of the continent. One of the ideas is that Barcelona, and thus Spain, becomes the ‘centre’ for gas and then green hydrogen in southern Europe. This is something that deserves applause from ‘president’ Pere Aragonès, who also promoted a European-funded project such as the hydrogen valley in the Tarragona region.
deadlines
This is one of the unknowns.When will the new infrastructure be operational?? No predictions have been made on this subject, but in any case, it is a medium or long-term study with fundamental problems to be solved, such as financing. This is one of the keys: if it is considered a project between individual countries or a project within Europe and therefore deserves to be funded by Brussels.