Spain announces funding for 35 renewable hydrogen projects

LONDON (ICIS)–The Spanish Ministry of ecological transition has granted on 31 March funding for 35 renewable hydrogen projects.

The projects received grants under two main categories:

€150 million were granted to 19 projects are part of the H2 Pioneers call (H2 Pioneros) Resolucion_proyectos_H2pioneros.pdf (idae.gob.es) which include initiatives where local hydrogen consumption could be implemented in sectors with difficult decarbonisation, such as industry and heavy transport.

Almost €50 million were granted to 18 projects related to equipment manufacturing for the production, transport and distribution of renewable hydrogen, were submitted under call 1 H2CVal_P1_Resolucion_Definitiva_VP.pdf (idae.gob.es) and call 2 H2CVal_P2_Resol_Definitiva_VP.pdf (idae.gob.es) of the H2 Value Chain program (H2 Cadena de Valor).

Among the assessment criteria used to select the beneficiary projects, there were the reduction of emissions, creation of employment, presence of innovation and not to cause significant damage to the environment.

The projects are located across nine autonomous communities, the majority in Andalusia.

Spain had designed a Hydrogen roadmap, which is revised every three years, to promote renewable hydrogen. Additionally, Spain had approved several climate targets involving Hydrogen in in the past years.

The country aims to have Hydrogen account for 25% of total energy consumed by industry and to install 4GW of electrolyser power by 2030, both targets designed under the Energy Storage Strategy.