Enagás takes a step forward in its projects and announces that the development of four future renewable hydrogen interconnections will officially culminate in 2023, which will promote an investment of close to 7,200 million euros in Spain. This was announced by the company’s CEO, Arturo Gonzalo, during the celebration of Enagás Hydrogen Day, in which he announced that the first of these signs of interest will be linked to the hydrogen transport sub-axis that will run along the Vía of the Silver.
In this way, the company will initiate the non-binding supply and demand matching mechanisms to optimize the development of the renewable hydrogen transport trunk network in Spain, once the Government updates the National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan (PNIEC), which is expected to do so throughout 2023.
As explained by the CEO, the project costs 2,500 million euros, the first of 2,135 million and the second of 350 million.
For its part, there will be other connections within Spain of some 2,750 kilometers in length that will cross the Cantabrian Coast, the Ebro Valley, the Levant and the Vía de la Plata, as well as a connection in Puertollano, for 3,500 million.
Added to this are the storage infrastructures, currently two in the north (Cantabria and the Basque Country) with a capacity of 335 gigawatt hours (GWh) and 240 GWh, respectively, for another 1,170 million euros. In any case, these are provisional and indicative imports, although the construction of all these infrastructures is expected to begin between 2025 and 2026.
Export potential of Spain
During the event, both Arturo Gonzalo and the Chairman of Enagás, Antonio Llardén; the fourth vice president and minister for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, Teresa Ribera; and the Secretary of State for Energy, Sara Aagesen, have agreed that Spain has an “extraordinary” position to take advantage of the full potential of renewable hydrogen.
Specifically, they have affirmed that it has great potential for renewable generation, robust infrastructures, industrial capacities, a good geographical position and collaboration from public administrations.
With all this, Spain is expected to have a production potential of between 2 and 3 million tons of hydrogen by 2030, with a national demand of only 1.3 million tons, so the surplus could be exported through these new interconnections. It is estimated that these exports could reach 2 million tons per year, which would be equivalent to around 10% of European demand in 2030.
In addition, the synergies between these future connections and the current gas network will allow a 50% reduction in terms and a 30% saving in costs, reusing current gas pipelines by 30%, a percentage that is expected to reach 70%. . Likewise, the cost of transporting hydrogen is between 2 and 4 times lower than that of transporting electricity through high voltage lines.
The goal is decarbonization
The minister, who appeared through a video recorded because the act coincided with the signing of the diplomatic treaty between Spain and France in Barcelona, stressed that hydrogen is one of the “most important vectors for decarbonisation”.
The objective, as he has pointed out, is that this technology is used for the most difficult to decarbonise environments, such as industry or heavy transport, for which a hydrogen Perte endowed with 1,555 million euros has already been approved.
For his part, Aagesen has put some data on the table such as that hydrogen will account for 35% of energy transport flows by 2050, along with 347% of critical minerals, and compared to 90% that now concentrates on fossil fuels. .
