The final adoption of the Delegated Act on Projects of Common Interest, published today in the Official Journal of the European Union, represents the approval of the list of PCIs by the Council and the European Parliament and is an important step forward in boosting the development of these hydrogen infrastructures.
This infrastructure will mean an estimated total gross investment in Spain – including the part corresponding to H2Med – of about 5.9 billion euros*.
H2Med
The H2Med comprises a connection between Celorico da Beira in Portugal and Zamora (CelZa), and a maritime connection between Barcelona and Marseille (BarMar). CelZa will have a maximum capacity of 0.75 million tonnes of renewable hydrogen, a length of 248 kilometres and a 24.6 MW compressor station in Zamora; and BarMar will have a maximum capacity of two million tonnes, a length of 455 kilometres and a 140 MW compressor station in Barcelona.
H2Med was presented in Alicante at the Euromed summit on 9 December 2022 by the governments of Portugal, Spain and France, with the support of the President of the European Commission, Ursula Von Der Leyen, and in January 2023 the support of Germany was added. Following this initial impulse, the TSOs of Portugal, Spain, France and Germany presented the project at an event in Berlin on 18 October, ratifying the support of the governments of these four countries and that of the European Commission, as well as that of the industry and the main players of the sector in Germany.
Since the December 2022 agreement, the H2Med project has continued to make progress. The company Wood is developing the preliminary engineering studies and analysis of route alternatives for the BarMar project corridor. In addition, the company Tecnoambiente, with the support of Francom and Natural Power, is finalising the social and environmental impact studies. These studies were initiated in February 2024 by the three partners promoting the BarMar project: Enagás, GRTgaz and Teréga, in coordination with OGE.
Also in the technical field, tomorrow Enagás will hold the ‘Enagás H2 Technical Day’ where technical advances in the development of hydrogen infrastructures will be discussed.
Spanish Hydrogen Backbone
The first axis of the Spanish Hydrogen Backbone included as a PCI are the Vía de la Plata Axis with its connection to the Puertollano Hydrogen Valley -which add up to a planned length of approximately 1,250 km-, and the Axis that includes the Cantabrian Coast, Ebro Valley and Levante Axes -about 1,500 km in total-, as well as two underground hydrogen storage facilities in Cantabria and the Basque Country, located in new salt caverns, with a planned capacity of 335 and 240 GWh, respectively.
Following the presentation of the results of the Call For Interest at its second Hydrogen Day, in which more than 200 companies - producers, consumers, marketers and other agents - presented more than 600 projects, Enagás continues to make progress in the development of renewable hydrogen transport infrastructures, as well as ammonia, oxygen and CO2. The information provided in this Call for Interest will also make it possible to adjust the routes and to detect whether it is necessary to incorporate axes that were not initially included in the first axes presented.
Enagás has been appointed provisional manager of the Hydrogen Backbone by the Spanish Government, through Royal Decree-Law 8/2023 of 27 December, approved by Parliament in January, and by 29 April the company will submit a proposal to the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge for a hydrogen backbone infrastructure for Spain, with a ten-year horizon.
The inclusion of the H2Med corridor and the Spanish Hydrogen Backbone and the two underground hydrogen storage facilities in the PCI list will help to advance in the fulfilment of the RePowerEU Plan to achieve the European and Spanish objectives of energy independence, industrial competitiveness and decarbonisation.
* These investments will be finalised in accordance with the binding plan to be defined by the Spanish Government.
