The CEO of Enagás, Arturo Gonzalo, stressed the importance of renewable hydrogen in achieving sustainable mobility. “Hydrogen is the only vector that can decarbonise all modes of transport,” he said during his speech on the first day of the Green Gas Mobility Summit 2024, organised by Gasnam-Neutral Transport and held in Madrid on 3 and 4 July.
“Hydrogen is already the great solution for the decarbonisation of land, sea and air transport”, he stressed in an interview with Eugenia Sillero, Secretary General of Gasnam. Arturo Gonzalo emphasised the key role that infrastructures will play in mobility, allowing hydrogen to reach where it is needed, connecting points of production with points of consumption. “The Spanish Hydrogen Backbone and H2Med will be a reality by 2030,” he said.
The CEO explained that Enagás will soon apply for funding from the Connecting Europe Facility for both infrastructures, which are included in the European Union’s list of Projects of Common Interest (PCI). “The day we have this backbone will change the face of transport in Europe,” said Arturo Gonzalo, adding that the Iberian Peninsula has enormous potential to become “the spearhead of the energy transition in transport”.
In her presentation “Progress and challenges in the certification of renewable gases”, María Junco, General Manager of Enagás GTS, highlighted the importance of guarantees of origin and the EU’s sustainable fuels database, the Union Database. “Guarantees of origin are and will be the key to decarbonisation, as they assure all consumers of the veracity of the renewable origin of the energy they consume,” she said.
In turn, Claudio Rodríguez, General Manager of Infrastructures of Enagás and Vice President of Energy of Gasnam, moderated the panel “Hydrogen and its derivatives maritime corridors” with the Director of Planning and Development of Puertos del Estado, Manuel Arana; the General Manager of the Port Authority of Huelva, Ignacio Álvarez-Ossorio; Andima Ormaetxe, Director of Operations, Commercial, Logistics and Strategy at the Port Authority of Bilbao; Héctor Calls, Head of Sustainability and Energy Transition at the Port of Barcelona; and Juan Pablo Pérez, Head of Port Planning at the Port Authority of Algeciras.
“The hydrogen economy represents an opportunity for Spain to develop export corridors and uses in mobility, and places the centre of gravity of an economy of transformation and storage of vectors such as hydrogen and CO2 around the ports,” he said.
The Director of Business Development and Diversification, Fernando Impuesto, participated in the panel “Driving hydrogen and its derivatives: strategies to promote its demand in transport”, together with Júlia Romeu (Carburos Metálicos), Matthieu Brouté (Galp) and Maribel Rodríguez (Repsol), moderated by Beatriz Nieto (National Hydrogen Centre). “The introduction of green hydrogen in the transport sector is essential for its decarbonisation and represents a unique opportunity for the sector and for Spain, with public-private cooperation being fundamental to its development,” he remarked.
