Enagas estimates the cost of the Spanish green hydrogen hub at 7 billion euros

Spain has entered fully into the race to become the first hydrogen hub in Europe. To this end, in addition to the already known H2Med hydroproduct that will link Barcelona with Marseille in a stretch and the Portuguese town of Celorico with Zamora in the other, has designed a whole network of internal pipelines of this new energy vector that will involve a joint investment of 6,955 million euros, according to data provided yesterday by the gas system manager Enagás.

The company chaired by Antonio Llardén organized yesterday in Madrid its first Hydrogen Day, which was opened virtually by the Third Vice President and Minister for Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, and in person by the Secretary of State for Energy, Sara Aagesen. The event was attended by a large representation of authorities, company managers, organizations and investment funds involved in promoting the development of green hydrogen as the energy vector of the future in which Spain aspires to be a major player and become the first European hub for this new energy.

The hydrogen backbone network in Spain will be 2,750 kilometers long and will cost 4.67 billion euros.

"Spain is extraordinarily positioned for it. In 2020 we had already designed our plan to boost hydrogen. The events of 2022 have precipitated this bet that is now at the center of European energy policies with H2Med as a reference project, but we are also the country that hosts 20% of all hydrogen projects in the world," said Ribera.

This challenge will have as its strategic axis the H2Med pipeline, with a total cost of 2,500 million euros, of which so far it is known that Spain will assume 157 of the 350 km that will connect with Portugal and the cost per country that will be assumed in the subway connection with France remains to be elucidated, as explained yesterday the CEO of Enagás, Arturo Gonzalo. The executive also detailed the projects that will articulate the connection between both international sections and the Spanish backbone. In total there will be 2,750 kilometers and two salt storage caverns, which will require a total investment of 4,670 million euros.

"Thirty percent of the current pipeline network is technically ready to transport hydrogen. The goal is that up to 70% can be reusable," explained the Enagás executive, who also announced that in the coming months a non-binding supply and demand matching process will be opened to optimize the development of the network.

The president of the National Commission for Markets and Competition, Cani Fernández, who closed the event, also spoke along these lines. "We must take firm but prudent steps. We cannot afford to oversize infrastructures that make energy unnecessarily and permanently more expensive for consumers in the future," she said.