Spain, France and Portugal prepare the first great hydrogen corridor The future water channel, scheduled to be operational in 2030 by the European Union, will cross the Iberian Peninsula from Portugal to Spain before plunging into the waters of the Mediterranean Sea in Barcelona to reappear in Marseille. The major pipeline project, H2Med, presented by the three countries at an Alicante summit this Friday, will cost around 2,850m euros, and supporters want the EU to subsidize half of the budget. But what’s not entirely clear is what kind of hydrogen it might ultimately carry.
Spain wants this to be limited exclusively green hydrogen, that is, produced with renewable energies, as Moncloa sources confirm. But France claims that it can also carry the hydrogen it produces with the energy it obtains from its nuclear reactors.pink hydrogen)energy, of which Europe is the greatest power. Thus, the first disagreements between Madrid and Paris on this infrastructure are expected.
To give the details of the plan, Spanish President Pedro Sánchez; French Emmanuel Macron; and the other participating country Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa. Along with them is Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, who sponsored the idea and supported the project, demonstrating community support.
This is where Macron made his intention clear: “The will is to carry the low-carbon hydrogen that can be obtained, the clean hydrogen. good with renewable energy, good with nuclearIt’s an idea that the Sánchez Government disagreed, which aims to ensure that the plan submitted to Brussels only serves to transport green hydrogen.
As an energy source, electricity is needed for hydrogen production. However, electrolysis of water occurs, which separates hydrogen (H2) from oxygen (O). It is considered “Green hydrogen” is hydrogen from which the required electricity is obtained from renewable sources. energy such as wind or sun. ““pink hydrogen” is a hydrogen in which electrolysis is done with energy. nuclear power plants. This is what France wants to include in the project.
According to Spanish government sources, the final decision will depend on the European Union, which must determine what type of hydrogen can pass through the hydroduct. H2Med either has EU funding or will not continue as the parties have made clear. The trio of countries wishing to develop it will present the project as a project of common interest (PIC) in Brussels before next Thursday to take advantage of the Union’s plans to fund up to half the amount.
The EU had included nuclear energy and gas in the category of “green” investments at the beginning of the year, despite Spain’s opposition. They felt it was necessary for the transition to cleaner energy after pressure from Germany and France. And that was before the start of the period of gas shortages caused by Russia’s lockdown of pipelines after its invasion of Ukraine.
Portugal and Spain eliminated gas
France won another war against Spain (and Germany) because of its energy connection. Paris has canceled the Midcat project, which aims to transport natural gas across the Pyrenees and later green hydrogen. Macron then used the environmental convention. He argued that Europe is in the midst of a war against climate change and there is no point in investing in hydrocarbon projects. Spain and Germany insisted that the Midcat project was planned as something multifaceted: first, gas to mitigate the effects on the energy supply of a protracted war in Ukraine; then reuse it to transport green hydrogen when this becomes a profitable reality in Spain, something that could take more than five years.
Tensions peaked at the end of the summer. If one day the French Ministry of Ecological Transition telegraphed the media that Madrid and Berlin’s technical proposal for the Midcat would be reviewed, the next day the French president threw a jug of cold water at Spanish-German ambitions. Macron went so far as to say that France was actually sending gas to Spain and that existing pipelines were not operating at full capacity.
Finally, on October 20, Sánchez agreed with Macron and Costas to abandon this project and start another: an underwater hydro channel between Spain and France, from Barcelona to Marseille (BarMar), and an underwater hydro channel between Portugal and Spain from Celorico. another land hydro channel. From Beira to Zamora (CelZa). This second division between Portugal and Spain also underwent changes. At first it was thought that it could be dual use like the Midcat, but the plan eventually presented also ruled out that possibility.
EU approval
Ursula von der Leyen is quite optimistic in her presentation in Alicante this Friday. The President of the European Commission said that the Iberian Peninsula is “called to become one of Europe’s main energy centers”. The H2Med plan is “definitely moving in the right direction” because it “has the potential to help us build a true European hydrogen backbone.” His words foresee possible approval from the Commission for the delivery of funds. The German added that with Russia’s energy war and its “serious repercussions on our energy systems and markets”, the transition to clean energy “has become not only urgent, but also vital”.
The Commission also says it will bet on new alliances with southern Mediterranean countries, a broader “Green Hydrogen Union”, reminding that the EU already has this alliance with Egypt and is now negotiating another one with Morocco. The Commission’s goal is to produce ten million tons of renewable hydrogen in the EU by 2030 and to import another ten million tons, which will reach European industry.