Spain, France and Portugal agreed to promote the first major hydrogen corridor in the European Union and later joined Germany in the initiative. A pharaonic project called H2Med that aims to be the key, with planned investments of around 2,500 million euros. supporting the renewable hydrogen revolution To gradually replace natural gas in economic sectors where electrification is difficult or impossible.
Agreed on the original plan Madrid, Paris and Lisbon It would unite the three countries through a two-part corridor, scheduled to be operational between 2028 and 2030. One part will connect Spain and Portugal (between Celorico da Beira and Zamora with an investment of 350 million) and the other part with Portugal. With France (between Barcelona and Marseille with an underwater tube that will cost 2.135 million). After adding Berlin, the metro network will cross French territory until it reaches Germany, and the goal is to deploy it to other countries in northern and central Europe.
Spain is now maneuvering so that its consumers do not bear the cost. Given that it aims to guarantee the security of energy supply in Europe and that the main beneficiaries will be the countries receiving the transported hydrogen, which will allow them to reduce their dependence on Russian gas and promote decarbonization of economies.
“H2Med will not be Spanish consumer funded,” he said this Tuesday. Arturo Gonzalo Aizpiri, CEO of EnagásThe manager of the Spanish gas system and the gas transport network and has been authorized to promote the design and project of H2Med together with other carriers of the respective countries (French Teréga and GRTgaz and Portuguese REN).
EU funds and end customer payments
The governments of countries that support the future hydrogen corridor value different formulas that are not exclusive but may eventually be complementary to finance the billion-dollar cost of it. Madrid, Lisbon and Paris submitted the H2Med candidacy to the European Commission in December to be considered a project of common interest (PCI, its acronym) with community assistance for 30% to 50% of what was planned. investments.
In addition to the injection of European funds, the countries promoting H2Med see it possible for the EU to consider hydrogen as an energy that can be financed at cross-border costs, which will make – in this case – countries benefiting from the infrastructure. , especially Germany – help finance it. Likewise, it will be possible to envisage payment of tolls for the use of the corridor, which will be borne by the final consumers of hydrogen, as well as the payment of tariffs for long-term use capacity contracts to be paid separately. by the end customers of this energy.
Hydrogen back and forth?
Differences in what type of hydrogen can be considered green between Spain and France have caused both sides to raise the tone in recent days. Spain wants a dispute with France over differing views on hydrogen labels to damage the world’s future. H2Med, the Government, and Enagás itself strongly deny that the dispute puts the project in jeopardy.
Vice President Teresa Ribera and the CEO of Enagás agreed this week to argue that the nuclear-generated hydrogen France advocated could seamlessly use H2Med for distribution to other European countries, but they reject the Paris thesis and it is now used. To support the European Commission in equating nuclear hydrogen with hydrogen produced by renewable energy in Community regulation.
The problem is, Intense pressure from the French government The EU’s leveling of the playing field for renewable hydrogen and nuclear comes as far as threatening to continue with H2Med. Originally a runner Hydrogen transport planned from the Iberian Peninsula to Europe and publicly released technical studies did not consider the opposite direction to send hydrogen from Europe to Spain.
But France, which was shocked by the color of hydrogen and the sustainability label distributed by the EU, warns that the corridor should also be used to send hydrogen produced with electricity from nuclear reactors to Spain, according to EL PERIÓDICO. DE ESPAÑA is from the Prensa Ibérica group. Official French sources warned that “France won’t be interested if it doesn’t go both ways” his statements to this newspaper reveal the need for the future hydro channel to be bidirectional in the energy transport flow.
Enagás emphasizes that the project submitted to the European Commission to obtain European funds only considers hydrogen shipments from Spain to France and not vice versa, as the planned infrastructure only includes a compression station in Barcelona that will serve to send the gas. Marseille, but the opposite direction is not considered.
However, Enagás’ CEO acknowledges that while there are currently no plans to install a compressor in Marseille to make this possible, the technical design of the future hydro channel will seek to ensure that the pipe is suitable for bidirectional flow as France demands. to send hydrogen from there to Barcelona. Hydrogen will be able to flow in both directions, but at least it is expected that only Spain has so far sent it to Europe.
a tube with italy
Amid the energy crisis, Spain spearheaded the proposal for the construction of several gas pipelines that would serve to bring natural gas to Europe. First, to connect Spain and France via the Pyrenees, the famous Midcat was replaced with H2Med for hydrogen only. And by sea, which will be used for ten years to transport gas between Spain and Italy, which will then be converted to sending hydrogen.
The Spanish government says it has completely given up on building new infrastructure to transport natural gas (it will not receive European funds to build it as it is deemed unsustainable) and will only launch cylinders for hydrogen, so there is a mega-plan to build an underwater gas. The pipeline between Barcelona and Livorno was considered buried.
However, the EU’s future planning of connecting infrastructures between countries to carry hydrogen continues to design a tube between Spain and Italy. The CEO of Enagás stressed that the Barcelona-Livorno connection was “not definitively dismissed”, but “has ceased to be a priority” for both countries. That first phase, which envisaged that the tube would be used to transport gas, was abandoned, and it remains to be seen whether the hydrogen transport plan can be resumed in the coming years.