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The European Commission will support, with 35.5 million euros, hydrogen interconnections on the Iberian Peninsula, including 7.2 million for a connection between Celorico da Beira and Zamora and the rest for an interconnector between Spain and France.
The announcement was made today in Brussels by the community executive, which in a statement reveals a total ‘fund’ of 1.25 billion euros in grants from the Connecting Europe Mechanism to 41 cross-border energy infrastructure projects with the status of projects of common interest, one of which is H2med, a transnational initiative to connect the Iberian Peninsula’s hydrogen networks to Northern and Central Europe.
According to the list of selected proposals for grants, now made available, H2med could be allocated up to 35.5 million euros: for a hydrogen H2Med CelZa interconnection (7.2 million euros) and for another connection between Barcelona and Marseille (28.3 million euros).
Another project covering Portugal was also selected, for studies for the European Hydrogen Backbone initiative aimed at creating a trans-European hydrogen network consisting of about 28,000 kilometers in 2030 (to which 2.8 million euros will be made available).
The project in question is H2med, for energy interconnections between Portugal, Spain, and France.
According to the information available on its website, H2med involves five partners in Europe (including REN – Redes Energéticas Nacionais) and has a total budget of 2.5 billion euros, which expects that, by 2030, green hydrogen will be supplied to Europe at an affordable cost starting in 2030.
From that date, it will have an annual transport capacity of two million tons of ‘green’ hydrogen (which represents 10% of Europe’s estimated consumption in 2030).
In October 2022, the governments of Portugal, France, and Spain reached an agreement to accelerate interconnections on the Iberian Peninsula, abandoning the existing project intended only for gas for another that foresees a maritime pipeline for, in addition to initially transporting this fossil fuel, being destined in the future for ‘green’ hydrogen.
The three countries decided to move forward with a “Green Energy Corridor,” by sea, between Barcelona and Marseille (BarMar) and agreed on the need to complete future renewable gas interconnections between Portugal and Spain, namely the connection between Celorico da Beira and Zamora (CelZa).
At the time, it was admitted that the project could be fully funded by European funds, through the Connecting Europe Mechanism.
In January 2023, Germany decided to support and join this hydrogen corridor initiative.
The idea is that the new infrastructures on the Iberian Peninsula will allow the distribution of ‘green’ hydrogen and be technically adapted to transport other renewable gases.
Hydrogen represents about 2% of the EU’s energy mix, and almost all of it (95%) is produced by fossil fuels, which annually release between 70 to 100 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2).
‘Green’ hydrogen, on the other hand, comes from renewable sources, so it does not emit CO2 and releases minute quantities of atmospheric pollutants.
It can be used as raw material, fuel, and as a vector for transporting or storing energy and applied in the industry, transport, energy, and building sectors.