Spain to stop sending electricity to France if Paris uses its own to produce pink hydrogen

When it seemed forgotten, the cold war between Madrid and Paris over pink hydrogen has re-emerged on the eve of the summit of energy ministers of the Mediterranean countries (Med9) to be held this Thursday in Valletta (France). This time, the attack has come from south of the Pyrenees, through statements made by the Minister of Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, to Reuters. The headline to heat up the meeting is served: the Government will turn off the tap to France if Paris takes advantage of Spanish electricity while using its own to produce nuclear hydrogen.

"What we are not willing to do is to supply domestic electricity demand because they are using their plants to produce hydrogen. That would be madness," the third vice-president told the international agency. In other words: a resounding no to France using Spanish electricity to fill the gap left by its nuclear plant, while using it in the electrolysis process, which separates hydrogen molecules from water. Currently, 70% of France' s installed capacity corresponds to atomic power plants.

Ribera's move comes at a time when exports to the neighboring country are breaking historical records, due to the stoppage of the French nuclear plant. The balance has been negative for 19 months -more is sent than received-, an unusual fact to date. According to Red Eléctrica, 2022 was the first year since 2010 in which exports exceeded imports, a trend that will be consolidated in the future due to the boom in renewables in our country. The appetite of French consumers for lower prices in Spain -supported until very recently by the cap on gas- could be compounded in the coming years by imbalances in the French market caused by the use of electricity as a secondary source for generating hydrogen.

In this regard, Ribera recalled the effort made by our country to supply France, which has led Spain to fail to meet European gas saving targets, according to Eurostat: "We were forced to export to the maximum of our capacity, producing electricity beyond our renewable energy capacities, so we use more gas than we would have liked".

Solidarity has a limit

Wednesday's statements establish a red line that Spain does not want to cross. The solidarity promoted by the European Union since the beginning of the war, based on the reinforcement of flows between countries, has a limit, according to Madrid's interpretation. But it is not electricity that matters: after all, Spain advocates the promotion of infrastructures connecting it to the rest of the continent, such as the undersea cable across the Bay of Biscay, in order to stop being an energy island - the current level of interconnection is 3%, compared with the European objective of 15% by 2030 - and it is France which has always raised the most objections.

The underlying issue has to do with hydrogen itself. With an exceptional renewable potential, our country has all the resources to become the main European power in this energy source, which is set to gradually replace gas from 2030 onwards. But, unlike France, it carries out electrolysis mainly through solar energy, to obtain what is known as green hydrogen. That is why Madrid is wary of Paris's attempts to promote pink hydrogen, obtained with electricity generated in atomic power plants, and even more so if this is done at the expense of Spain itself, which would act as a useful fool through its exports of light.

The two countries already had a bitter dispute last winter, which ended with a Commission delegated act favorable to French claims, opening the door to the possibility that hydrogen of nuclear origin could be considered renewable. This would allow French projects to obtain funding from the REPowerEU program, with which the Union seeks to reduce dependence on Russian gas and promote energy transition. Disagreements on this issue threaten the future of H2Med, a pipeline that is set to connect Barcelona and Marseille to transport Spanish green hydrogen to the continent, but which France also wants to pump its pink hydrogen to the mainland.

When it seemed forgotten, the cold war between Madrid and Paris over pink hydrogen has re-emerged on the eve of the summit of energy ministers of the Mediterranean countries (Med9) to be held this Thursday in Valletta (France). This time, the attack has come from south of the Pyrenees, through statements made by the Minister of Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, to Reuters. The headline to heat up the meeting is served: the Government will turn off the tap to France if Paris takes advantage of Spanish electricity while using its own to produce nuclear hydrogen.