Spain doesn’t seem willing to bend its arm in construction of gas pipeline medium cat. After the refusal of French president Emmanuel Macron, he insisted on keeping the debate open on the 27th, and the first point seems to be in favor of the Spanish Government: European ministers agreed on Friday that a technical group on interconnections should evaluate. What infrastructures need to be strengthened Arriving in time for the winter of 2023-2024, as Teresa Ribera, Vice President and Minister of Ecological Transition, said at the exit. Just what I’ve been asking for weeks. The Spanish goal is strategic: position yourself before anyone else for future exports green hydrogen On the continent. And the war in Ukraine opened as a window of opportunity to accelerate the project that the Government did not want to miss.
“Spain today is a central natural gas it is a long term strategy to join the hydrogen game. Advertising to activate requests and generate conversations. There are many EU funds at stake and countries are on the hunt,” explains Andrés Schuschny, a postgraduate professor in renewable energies at the International University of Valencia.
After the invasion of Ukraine, European Union (EU) doubles green hydrogen targets for 2030 Up to 10 million tons of production and 10 million tons of import. According to Narcís de Carreras, CEO of Nedgia (Naturgy’s gas distributor), today the EU produces 0.6 million tons of gray hydrogen at the 7th El Economista Energy Forum last week. “The famous MidCat ultimately has the rationale to be one of the main sources of hydrogen exports from Spain to major European consumers, and we didn’t invent it ourselves, but rather the RepowerEU plan says so,” said Arturo Gonzalo Aizpiri, Enagás CEO. in the same forum.
Green hydrogen is an energy vector still under development as it is very expensive, but decarbonize Sectors where electrification is hard to reache.g. industry or heavy transport (maritime or aviation). Therefore, the Government approved a PERTE last year to allocate 1,555 million euros to the development of this technology. The goal is to create a new industry. And the interest is maximum. All major energy companies such as Iberdrola, Endesa, Naturgy, Repsol, Acciona or Enagás have started projects.
first two PERTE grant calls launched in December were successful. someone goes pioneering projects and received more than 126 requests, over 700 million, over five times the budget; The other is geared towards the value chain (improving R&D and production capabilities) and has doubled the budget by taking 92 projects worth 525 million according to Ministry of Ecological Transformation sources. The government hopes to provide assistance for more than 1,000 megawatts of electrolyzers by the end of 2023, with the aim of reaching 4,000 megawatts of installed power by 2030 and 25% of the industry’s consumption.
a lot to do
The challenge is huge. Y Spain competes with other countries starting from the same point. According to Marta Sánchez, partner in charge of Energy Strategy and Consulting at EY consulting firm at the El Economista forum, Spain is more developed on the supply side (due to the country’s high renewable generation) but not on the demand side. For example, there are already pilot projects for hydrogen boilers in the UK. “Compulsory balancing the complexity of simultaneously evolving demand and supply”, agreed Redexis CEO Fidel López Soria at the same forum.
The Spanish Administrator has advanced regulations by creating a system of guarantees of origin, a type of certificate that allows to distinguish clean gases from gases of fossil origin. But according to Emilio Bruquetas, Reganosa managing director, and Arturo Gonzalo Aizpiri, Enagás CEO, there is still much to be done, such as integrated planning for electricity and gas, because for renewable hydrogen production, largest installation of solar and wind energy All of what is foreseen in the current electricity planning and any special regulations that foresee the problems that may arise.
brake of france
When Spain succeeded in producing green hydrogen, next step is export. And that’s where the ‘new’ Midcat comes in (according to Professor Andrés Schuschny, hydrogen is more corrosive and volatile than gas, so a plastic coating and synthetic elements are required to transport the new fluid, and to prevent leaks in valves; to get an idea, currently only 5% hydrogen can be put into a gas pipeline and the remaining 95% should be natural gas). This discussion may take several years, but war opens an opportunity. “It makes sense to speed up construction to use it for gas in the first phase because Europe needs this gas”, reassured Gonzalo Aizpiri, who noticed a bottleneck in the existing interconnections: “We see this and the French TSOs (gas system operators) are seeing it”.
Despite this theoretical evidence, the French president rejected the majority and dismissed the channel a few weeks ago. The Spanish Government is getting along with its neighbor. In addition to the difficult electricity situation (with more than half of the nuclear power plants shut down), the construction of the French section of the gas pipeline is “much more complex” (and expensive) than the Spanish section, Ribera said, a forum organized by Infolibre. “Right now they are concerned about the electrical system and need to adjust their national priorities,” Ribera admitted, but added: “There is a point of inconsistency that Europe has underlined. smarter use of infrastructure is essential and use all complementarities and that it is in Europe’s interest and however do not engage in this discussion of what is in Europe’s interest and how to resolve any technical or financial problems that may arise and leave it to one or the other’s discretion. two countries. Two people don’t fight if one doesn’t want to, but it’s very difficult for two people to come to an agreement if they don’t. And it’s unfair because it’s not about imposing anything on anyone, it’s about seeing how European interests are reconciled. Therefore, I believe that this is not a closed debate and that our position should be accessibility towards the whole of Europe”.
Success of first calls for hydrogen PERTE
The government launched the first two calls for PERTE assistance for renewable energy, hydrogen and storage (ERHA) in December on a budget so far: 400 million €According to Ministry of Ecological Transition sources, companies submitted more than 1,225 million requests for 218 projects. After the initial analysis of the lines and value chain of the leading projects, it is estimated that they can contribute to the development of projects between 315 megawatts and 500 megawatts electrolyzer. The final result will be known in the coming months.
In case of help”pioneer or single projects“- real projects for the production and use of renewable hydrogen (in transport, industrial uses, etc.)– 42 large companies, 44 SMEs (it was a basic requirement for an SME to join the consortium), 31 consortiums own legal entities, own legal entities 3 consortium, 6 public sector organizations Projects represent practically the entire national territory and require additional assistance as 40% of files are conducted in demographically problematic areas (municipalities with less than 5,000 residents), fair pass or islands, most files are PEM technology (81%), but there are alkaline (17%) and others (2%), according to the power range, most of the files are 0.5 to electrolyzer. 5 megawatts (76%), 13 files 5-10 megawatts (MW), 6 files 10-15 MW and 11 files 15-20 MW. Half of the files are of a special renewable plant, physically connected to the construction electrolyzer.
in relation to helping the value chain21 large companies, 30 SMEs, 34 unincorporated consortia, 5 consortiums with their own legal personality, 1 technology center and 1 public institution requested assistance. These calls cover not only innovation projects, but also production projects, test lines and large electrolysis demonstrators.
On the other hand, the European Commission four Spanish projects (10% of the total) In the IPCEI list – short for ‘Major Projects of Common European Interest’, or projects involving more than one member state and requiring a broad passion for R&D and Development – presented before the summer.
Between the already ongoing hotlines and those planned for 2022 and 2023 (Hydrogen Valleys and IPCEI), assistance will be given to install more than 1 gigawatt of electrolyzers by the end of 2023, 25% of the target set for 2030.