Cepsa, Enagás Renovable and Alter Enersun to develop green hydrogen plant in Huelva

Cepsa, Enagás Renovable and Alter Enersun, have signed this Wednesday in Palos de la Frontera (Huelva) an agreement to jointly develop a green hydrogen plant in Huelva, connected to a solar energy facility, within the Andalusian Green Hydrogen Valley.

As reported, the new green hydrogen plant, whose electrolysis capacity will reach 200 megawatts (MW), will be operational in 2026 and its production will be used to supply Cepsa's own industrial consumption and will enable the manufacture of advanced biofuels. The photovoltaic facility will also have a capacity of 200 MW.

Thus, Alter Enersun will be responsible for developing the photovoltaic plant, which will be located on land belonging to the Port Authority of Huelva, more specifically in the Marismas del Pinar in the capital, and Cepsa and Enagás Renovable will be responsible for the construction and commissioning of the hydrogen plant at Cepsa's Energy Park facilities in Palos de la Frontera.

The production of renewable energy next to the place where it will be consumed means an "important" optimization of the projects and a greater use of the synergies between the companies.

Representatives of the three companies have presented this Wednesday the alliance in the Energy Park La Rabida, accompanied by the mayor of Palos de la Frontera, Carmelo Romero, the delegate of the Junta de Andalucía in Huelva, Bella Verano, the mayor of Huelva, Gabriel Cruz, the president of the Port of Huelva, Pilar Miranda, and the president of the Aiqbe, José Luis Menéndez.

In this sense, the Hydrogen Director of Cepsa, Joaquin Rodriguez, said that "two new allies are added to the Andalusian Green Hydrogen Valley to decarbonize the Huelva industry and thus promote its sustainability and competitiveness".

"We join our technical capabilities, experience and knowledge of the sector to those of Enagás Renovable and Alter Enersun to launch a large-scale green hydrogen plant, which will be self-sufficient with renewable energy," he added.

He also pointed out that this is the first phase of Cepsa's Andalusian Green Hydrogen Valley project, which includes the Palos de la Frontera and San Roque centers and whose objective is to obtain two gigawatts of green hydrogen production before 2030 and the generation in both centers of about 1,000 direct jobs and another 10,000 indirectly between the two centers.

For his part, the Operations Director of Enagás Renovable, Luis Iglesias, expressed his satisfaction with this collaboration between the three companies that "allows progress in the promotion of renewable gas projects in Spain, responding to the decarbonization needs of industry and the transport sector in its different modalities".

For his part, José Luis Morlanes, CEO of Alter Enersun, highlighted that the objective is to build a 200 MW photovoltaic plant to generate green hydrogen that will take advantage of the sun's energy to improve the environment.

"We are proud to participate in Cepsa's Positive Motion strategy, which contributes to the energy transition and to achieving energy autonomy in Spain," he said.

Cepsa and Enagás Renovable have also signed a complementary agreement for the production and purchase of biomethane. Biomethane will be used to replace natural gas in different industrial processes, thus contributing to a reduction in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

Biomethane, a renewable gas with characteristics similar to those of natural gas, is obtained through a biogas & biogas process. Biogas is produced by anaerobic digestion of organic waste, a natural process that accelerates the production of this ecological gas with a high concentration of methane, thanks to the action of bacteria that live in the absence of oxygen.

This new alliance is part of Cepsa's 2030 strategy, Positive Motion, through which the company is transforming itself to become a benchmark in the energy transition, leading sustainable mobility in Spain and Portugal, as well as the production of renewable hydrogen and advanced biofuels. Cepsa will promote the decarbonization of its customers, as well as its own activity, reaching net zero emissions by 2050.

Enagás Renovable has pointed out that collaboration between companies is a pillar of its corporate strategy in order to promote the development of renewable gases and contribute to achieving a carbon neutral economy. It also recalled that it is committed to an energy model that abandons the use of fossil fuels and generalizes the use of renewable energy sources.

Alter Enersun, for its part, is developing competitive energy solutions that combine renewable energies with the production of green hydrogen to decarbonize energy-intensive activity, reducing emissions and dependence on fossil fuels.