Enagas, Naturgy to develop Spanish green hydrogen plant

LONDON (ICIS)–Spanish gas grid operator Enagas and energy company Naturgy plan to develop a 400MW solar PV plant alongside an electrolyser of up to 60MW in Spain, according to a joint announcement made on 17 December.

The project aims to produce up to 9,000 tonnes of renewable hydrogen per year.

Renewable hydrogen produced from the plant will cover local consumption, injection into the gas networks and enable future exports to north-western Europe.

The project is part of the Green Spider initiative also known as Green Crane– promoted by Enagas – which has been presented as a candidate for a project of common European interest. This initiative seeks to position Spain as a logistics hub for renewable hydrogen in Europe, in collaboration with countries like Germany and the Netherlands.

This new plant will be in La Robla, north-western Spain, near the coal plant that was closed by Naturgy last summer.

Information on the timeline and funding of this project will be released in the next few months, ICIS understands.

SPAIN’S GREEN HYDROGEN PUSH

In October this year, the Spanish government approved the hydrogen roadmap targeting 4GW of installed electrolysis power capacity by 2030.

The roadmap also sets an intermediate goal of installing 300-600MW of power from renewable hydrogen electrolysers by 2024, supporting the European Commission’s ambition for 6GW of capacity by the same year.

This will involve an estimated investment of around €8.9bn to be mobilised by the private sector – with an efficient public sector support – until 2030.

Since the roadmap publication, the country has erupted in new announcements of capacity and funding from both government and private enterprise.

Spanish utility Iberdrola announced on 18 November that it had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with world-leading Norwegian electrolyser producer Nel to progress Spain’s electrolyser capacity.

The company aims to integrate 200MW of electrolyser capacity at Fertiberia’s Palos de la Frontera plant in Spain by 2023.

Alongside private investment from Iberdrola, the Spanish government is looking to allocate more than €1.5bn from the European Recovery Fund to the development of renewable hydrogen by 2023, prime minister Pedro Sanchez said on 19 November.