The implementation of everything required in the Spanish energy park so that green hydrogen turns Spain into an energy hub at a European and global level is a constant in evolution, but what situation is this journey in?
This is the mystery that several experts help to unpack in this La Razón Special and, as everyone points out, it involves infrastructure and regulation, above all.
This energy transition has as its first turning point the objectives set for the well-known 2030 Agenda, although, ultimately, that will only be the starting point for the new energy system that, clearly, will be able to position Spain as a world leader in the manufacture and export of not only green hydrogen, but also the technology necessary for it.
Just a few weeks ago, the Government announced the distribution of almost 800 million euros among seven projects for the production and intensive use of renewable hydrogen in industrial activities, but the most important thing to see the current state of this pioneering system and how much is to be achieved is to know how many projects exist and at what level of development
Javier Brey, president of the Spanish Hydrogen Association (Aeh2), explained that currently there are “almost 400 projects that add up to a total of 33 million euros in investments. If we go to the gigawatts, the goal for 2030 is for 13 gigawatts of electrolyzers to be operating. As of today, taking into account the degree of maturity of the projects, we have 28 megawatts operating (MW is one thousandth of a GW) and in the FID phase (project with financial closure) there are 158 MW more. Then, of projects very close to achieving the FID before the end of 2025, there are 3.5GW; That is to say, we are talking about that practically with this last phase of project maturation, 25 percent of what was planned for 2030 would be reached.”
For his part, Borja Fernández, head of Energy at the CARTIF Technology Center, stressed that “Spain has moved from the strategy to the first industrial deployments of green hydrogen, consolidating an increasingly robust framework for its development. In parallel, the regulatory framework has experienced a qualitative leap with the entry into operation of the Guarantees of Origin (GdO) system for renewable gases and the adoption of the European RFNBO standards, which establish criteria for temporal and geographical additionality that “They are essential for the bankability of the projects and closing purchase and sale contracts.”
Main challenges
Following the thread, Brey was very clear about it. The main challenge at the moment is access, “access to the electricity grid and the hydrogen network on the one hand and to the market through regulation, on the other.” In this way, the president of the Aeh2 emphasized that the current moment is crucial because everything else will depend on these two points that have to be defined. “To produce hydrogen you take renewable electricity, you take water and dissociate the water molecule into oxygen and hydrogen, which you have to take to your client, generally through a tube. The desirable thing is that this tube will help us start talking about a hydrogen infrastructure in our country. So, on the one hand, access to the electrical grid. To give you an example, Enagas has a proposal for a hydrogen backbone network that involves the first kilometers of transport tube that will link the south with the north of Spain and the east with the west. And to develop this proposal, Enagas has taken into account the association’s census of projects in development. The idea is to merge Spain, to connect all the points of Spain and to join together projects that do not even exist today.
Access to the market is also needed. That is, we have already worked a lot, between 2000 and 2025, on generating hydrogen supply and now we have to work on the demand side, on the market side and that is regulation. Right now we are working on defining how the use of hydrogen and its derivatives should be, that is, derivatives of renewable hydrogen in aviation, in maritime transport, in land transport, and in industry. We are not talking only about hydrogen, but about fuels derived from hydrogen.For example, methanol, ammonia, synthetic fuels for ships or airplanes, etc. So, all of that is regulated by the European Union right now, but it must be transposed into national regulations.”
Infrastructure and regulation are the keys at this time, but the good news is that we are not starting from scratch and that the path, although it has yet to be fully defined, has already been designed and is beginning to bear fruit.
In the words of Borja Fernández, “uOne of the biggest challenges lies in the firm renewable electricity availability. Hydrogen competes with other uses for network capacity and green generation, which is why investments in strengthening electric transportation, storage and flexibility are essential to comply with the demanding temporal correlation requirements established by the RFNBO regulations. He transportation and storage of hydrogen pose another technical challenge. The national backbone and the H₂Med project represent the structural solution for large-scale transport, but their deployment will be completed from 2030 and will require strong European coordination. In the initial phases, transportation using tankers or “tube trailers” is useful, but economically limited to small volumes and short distances.
Benefits
The implementation of green hydrogen is undoubtedly a milestone from which a multitude of benefits could emanate for Spain. Firstly, the fact of creating and developing energy like this provides an independence that, more than positive, is essential in a hectic geopolitical context like the current one and in which one of the most crucial points for the functioning of a country, such as energy, can remain to a greater extent in the hands of third parties. But in addition, the technological development being worked on will provide the Spanish productive system with a vertical demanded by other States that will position Spain as one of the main exporters of energy and technology.
“In Spain we are very well positioned in R&D. Our country develops very good technology in hydrogen and in the hydrogen value chain. For example, fuel cells that use that hydrogen, compressors, transformers, transportation, distribution, storage systems, etc. Have very good manufacturing industry, cTherefore, we have technology, industry and companies that promote hydrogen projects, which promote them here in Spain and abroad.And it is very important that we have all four things, because not only are we going to be a hydrogen producer, but we can develop those plants, we can manufacture the equipment that those plants use and we have the technology behind them.If we made a list of 10 countries in the world most developed in green hydrogen, Spain would be there,” Javier Brey emphasized.
In this sense, and to conclude, Fernández emphasized that green hydrogen opens a single strategic window and Spain It has a clear comparative advantage thanks to its solar-wind resource, its advanced energy infrastructure and its industrial capacity. This allows you to aspire to be production and export hub towards the rest of Europe.Internally, the adoption of this technology drives the reindustrialization and decarbonization of energy-intensive sectors – such as refining, chemicals, fertilizers, steel or port logistics -, reinforcing the national energy resilience and promoting the creation of its own value chain for the manufacture of electrolyzers and components. However, they persist important risks. The cost gap between green hydrogen and fossil alternatives remains considerable, and there is a danger that some of the announced projects will not materialize if solvent demand is not consolidated or the deployment of infrastructure is not accelerated.