The H2Med hydrogen corridor has been added to the list of strategic projects with the possibility of receiving funds from the European Union (EU), after the European Commission has included this transport route between the Iberian Peninsula and France and Germany to the list of 166 energy sector initiatives known as Projects of Common Interest (PIC).
The Department of Energy, led by Commissioner Kadri Simson, made public this Tuesday the sixth edition of this list. In addition to including projects to promote the use of hydrogen as an energy source, this latest list has as a novelty the exclusion of new gas projects, with the exception of those developed in Malta and Cyprus. This change in the resources to be financed responds to the intention of the region’s authorities to abandon the exploitation of fossil fuels.
Despite withdrawing funds from gas-related initiatives, the list of strategic projects does include the adaptation of some gas infrastructure to be reused for the transportation of hydrogen. Several environmental NGOs have criticized this position on the grounds that it implies financing the fossil industry, even indirectly.
A new hydrogen infrastructure
“It is legitimate, but we have a different opinion. Using existing gas infrastructure is the cheapest way to create hydrogen infrastructure,” European sources point out. The list includes 166 Projects of Common Interest (PIC) and Mutual Interest (PIM) between the EU and third countries, such as an electrical interconnection between Tunisia and Italy.
Of these, 85 are electricity-related projects, from marine production to smart grids, while another 65 projects are dedicated to hydrogen and electrolyzers and 14 more focused on CO2 capture and storage. “The era of European funds for fossil energy infrastructure is over. Now is the time to invest in more flexible, decentralized energy infrastructure and a digitalized system,” said Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson at the presentation of the list. .
Projects ‘made in Spain’
The new document includes the hydrogen corridor that Spain and Portugal, with the support of Germany, had to negotiate with France to convince the French president, Emmanuel Macron, who had opposed in the previous years the previous gas project that was going to reinforce the connections between the Iberian Peninsula and the rest of the continent (the MidCat).
Thus, this new project is listed as “Portugal-Spain-France-Germany Corridor” and is broken down into the different phases of the project: the internal infrastructure in Portugal, the Portuguese-Spanish connection, the infrastructure on Spanish soil, the connection between Spain and France between Barcelona and Marseille, the French infrastructure that connects with Germany (called HyFen) and the German infrastructure that connects with France (H2Hercules).
H2Med, therefore, could receive European funding if the Community Executive so decides in a later phase, which is expected to be announced before the summer of 2024 and which will involve around ten projects, European sources explained. In parallel, the Commission will announce next December the list of Projects of Common Interest started in 2021 that have been selected to receive financing.
In this new selection in which H2Med appears, around half of the projects are expected to be completed by the end of this decade but “the focus is on 2040,” explain community sources. Only the section within the Spanish infrastructure between Guitiriz (Lugo) and Zamora, which appears among the exceptions on the list, would be left out of European funds.
On the contrary, a series of Spanish hydrogen production or electrolysis facilities could receive Community financing, which are those in Tarragona, Bilbao, Cartagena, Asturias and the Andalusian Green Hydrogen Valley, as well as two Spanish hydrogen storage facilities. hydrogen. .
EU electrical connections
With respect to the electrical connections included in the list of energy projects of common interest of the EU, three other Spaniards that were already on previous lists are included. Specifically, it deals with the interconnection between Spain and Portugal through Galicia, the interconnection between Spain and France through the Basque Country known as the Bay of Biscay and the two sections of the connection between Spain and France through the Pyrenees (one by Navarra and the other for Aragon).
Finally, the text also includes two electricity storage stations with hydropumping, one in Navaleo (León), which was already in previous versions of the document, and another in Los Guajares (Granada), but exclusive of a similar project in Velilla del Río . Carrión (Palencia) that was included in the previous version.
THE NAIS IS OFFICIAL EDITOR ON NAIS NEWS