This hydroduct is expected to transport green hydrogen between Barcelona and Marseille, and although many details are still unknown, its commissioning is expected around 2030
Spain, France and Portugal will meet this Friday in Alicante within the framework of the IX Euro-Mediterranean Summit EU-MED9 to advance the development of the H2Med green hydrogen submarine corridorinitially baptized as BarMar, a project that will be presented to the European Commission (EC) on December 15.
The meeting, attended by the President of the Government, Pedro Sanchez, the French Head of State, Emmanuel Macron, and the Prime Minister of Portugal, Antonio Costaas well as the president of the EC, Ursula von der Leyen, will be held in parallel to the EU-MED9, postponed since September due to Sánchez’s positive for coronavirus.
In the energy field, the meeting will serve to finalize details on the H2Med, a hydroduct that will transport green hydrogen between Barcelona and Marseille (south-eastern France) and which the three countries agreed to in October as an alternative to the long-awaited MidCat trans-Pyrenean project, which was rejected by the French Executive.
Goal 2030
However, the technical and financial details of the project are still unknown, as well as the deadlines for it to become operational, although sources from the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge they indicate 2030 as the most feasible date for its implementation.
Although at first a construction period of between four and five years was consideredthe trans-European infrastructure processing processes can take between one and two years, a period to which must be added the final approval of the countries and its final construction.
Despite the fact that the deadlines are not as agile as those offered by MidCat, the intention of the Spanish Government, as the third vice president, Teresa Ribera, recently explained, goes through present the project to the Commission before December 15 to qualify for European funding.
Specifically, Ribera cited the possibility of taking advantage of the ‘Connecting Europe Facility’ programme, funds that the European Union allocates to implement the policy of trans-European energy networks.
This program, in the case of new infrastructures, only offers financing to those projects that transport only hydrogen, so the connection that Spain, France and Portugal intend to promote will not be able to finally transfer natural gas.
The government’s objective is to ensure that the EC finances around 50% of the projectsince this type of aid usually allows obtaining a community contribution of between 30% and 50% of the final cost of the infrastructure.
Key for Europe
Leaving aside the technical details of the project, this, which according to experts could allow Spain to position itself as a benchmark in Europe and in a privileged situation for take advantage of the economic opportunities offered by renewable hydrogenseems key to increasing the security of European supply in a context marked by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
In turn, this infrastructure will respond to the historical claim of Spain and Portugal for put an end to energy isolation that the Iberian Peninsula has historically suffered, plagued by interconnection problems with the rest of the European partners.
It is estimated that the H2Med can transport up to 10% of the total renewable hydrogen target set by Brussels in the ‘RePower EU’ plan, which was presented last May and sets a target of 20 million tons of renewable hydrogen by 2030.