The Head of Strategy and Planning of Enagás, María Teresa Nonay, highlighted the opportunity that renewable hydrogen represents for Spain at the 1st Expansión GreenWorld & Sustainability conference, held on 27 and 28 September in Madrid. In her speech, she stressed that the non-binding Call for Interest that Enagás has launched for the Spanish Backbone Network is “essential” to get a “snapshot” of hydrogen needs in Spain. In her words, this call for interest “will help to develop planning and put figures on the market”.
“This information will be crucial in initiating an energy planning process in our country,” she said during her presentation in the roundtable “Green Hydrogen, Strategic Vector in the Energy Transition”, in which she participated along with the member of PwC Strategy&, Gerardo Fernández; the CEO of Gas Extremadura and Director of Energy Efficiency of CL Grupo Industrial, David Aguilera; the Country Head of BNP Paribas Asset Management, Sol Hurtado de Mendoza; the Director of Hydrogen of Capital Energy, Pablo Vázquez; the Director of Regulation of Naturgy, José Luis Gil; and the Vice President of PTeH2 and Director of Strategy, Business Development and Communications of H2B2, África Castro.
This call for interest, she said, “will help to develop planning and put figures on the market” for hydrogen. The Head of Strategy and Planning of Enagás underlined the broad support of90% of the hydrogen value chain in Spain for this initiative and more than 95% of the production and consumption of grey hydrogen, as shown by the more than 130 letters of support that have been received.
Nonay also called for collaboration between all the stakeholders involved in the process. “The Spanish Backbone Network could be a very important platform for small projects in Spain to obtain funding through the Hydrogen Bank and it is crucial that we take advantage of everything within our reach: European funding, Spanish funding, consortia, etc.”, she said.
The Head of Strategy and Planning also assessed the progress made in the regulatory sphere to promote decarbonisation through renewable hydrogen: “We have come a long way, though sometimes we fail to see the big picture. This year, for example, we are going to receive the new regulation from Europe, such as the Red III directive and the hydrogen and gas decarbonisation package. That is a very important step.”
