He German operator OGE has joined its counterparts, the Spanish, Enagás, the Portuguese, REN, and the French, GRTgaz and Terégato promote the development of H2Medthe tube that aspires to unite the Iberian Peninsula with France through the connection between Barcelona and Marseille to export hydrogen to central Europe. The five companies staged the agreement at an event held at the embassy of Berlin and broadcast on video, in which representatives industrialists and politicians of the country have insisted that the lack of hydrogen demand “will not be a problem” for the projectbut the question is its financing and regulation.
“The demand is not a problem if there is regulatory and financial support. Once there is a regulatory framework we can start working,” said the general director of economic policy of the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action of Germany, Philipp Steinberg, who explained that the country has “modeled” a network of 10,000 kilometers to unite all your industrial centers and import hydrogen from the Nordic countries and “possibly” also from the south.
According to the roadmap to 2030, the German Government states that the country will need to import between 50% and 70% of its domestic consumption that year, between 95 and 130 terawatt hours (TWh) annually, and plans to do so through the Sea. of the North and Baltic countries, as well as connections with the south, either through France, Spain and Portugal (H2Med) or through Austria and Italy (southern corridor).
The hydrogen corridor that aspires to link Spain and Portugal with the rest of Europe plans to transport some 2 million tons of green hydrogen from 2030, which would represent 10% of the continent’s total demand on that date. “We don’t have much wind compared to the Nordic countries, nor sun. But we are in the center and we have to connect the dots,” added the Parliamentary Secretary of State of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action, Franziska Brantner.
Regarding financing, Steinberg I affirm that the idea is that it is mainly a “traditional financingso that consumers pay through the taxes”. “But at first there won’t be many consumers, so we have to define a amortization account in case the calculations fail. Then, we will all be the ones who pay for it. It will be all of you, in fact,” he added Philipp Steinberg.
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The CEO of Enagás, Arturo Gonzalo Aizpiricalled the proposal Steinberg as “inspiring” to “cover and close the initial gap to start building a project that will be paid in full when it is mature.” The underwater union between Barcelona and Marseille It has an approximate cost of 2.5 billion euros for the Barcelona-Marseille interconnection, to which is added the section with Portugal with an estimated cost of 350 million euros.
H2Med has been one of the 180 projects submitted to be considered a Project of Common Interest (PCI), a status that would give access to certain Community funds and fast-track permits. The European Commission plans to announce the list of projects to which it will support on October 26 so that from 2024 “the money can flow”, as announced by the deputy director general of the Directorate General of Energy of the community executive, Mechthild Wörsdörfer.