Brussels excludes the Zamora-Guitiriz section of the Spanish and international H2Med route that it will support with a fund of 42,000 million

From Portugal to Germany, passing through Spain and France. The H2Med green hydrogen corridor has taken another step this Tuesday to become a reality with the decision of the European Commission to include it in its new list of Projects of Common Interest (PCI), thus ensuring that they will have European financing, in part of a fund for energy connections endowed with 42.3 billion euros. Brussels has also included the internal route of the H2Med in Spain, but excluding a section between Guitiriz (Lugo) and Zamora.

As planned, the Commission has formally adopted a new list of PCIs which, in the case of Spain, also includes four electrical connections, with Portugal and France, as well as electrolyser projects, to produce renewable hydrogen, and pumping hydraulic, to store electricity of hydraulic origin.

In the case of H2Med, the decision makes it eligible to be financed with European funds.. There are several financial instruments for them. One of them is for connection facilities (Connecting Europe Facility) endowed with 42.3 billion euros until 2027 to support energy infrastructure networks throughout the EU.. Almost a year ago, when the H2Med was formally presented at the Euromed in Alicante, the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, estimated the cost at 2.5 billion, of which he hoped that half would be covered by community funds.. To this amount must be added the subsequent addition of the section to Germany and the expansion of the internal configuration in Spain. Enagás estimates that the projects of the Spanish Hydrogen Backbone Network, together with the storage, would represent an investment of around 4.6 billion.

While waiting to determine its contribution, the European Commission considered this Tuesday that practically the entire H2Med route decided so far, which runs from Portugal to Germany, should be considered a Project of Common Interest.

This includes the internal infrastructure of Portugal, Spain and France, as well as the international interconnectors between Portugal and Spain (between Celorico and Zamora) and between Spain and France, through the so-called BarMar, the underground connector that will link Barcelona and Marseille.. Also the connection between France and Germany, an infrastructure called HyFen, as well as the internal German infrastructure to connect with France, a project called H2Hercules South.

Electrical interconnections and pumping

In addition to this green hydrogen transportation megaproject, the new CPI list includes seven other projects located in Spain, including four electrical interconnections with Portugal and France. They will link Fontefria with Vila Nova de Famalicao in Portugal and Gatica and the French town of Cubnezais, along the Bay of Biscay. Two others will be laid across the Pyrenees to link with France, one from Aragon to Marsillon and another from Navarra to the Landes.

Five Spanish electrolyzer projects will also receive European funding, the key device for the production of green hydrogen, which separates the two hydrogen atoms in each water molecule for each one of ozone (H2O).. The green label is because the electricity used to make this separation comes from renewable sources, such as wind energy or photovoltaics.. A network of hydrogen electrolyzers in Tarragona, a large-scale electrolyzer in Bilbao and another in Cartagena, the Green Hydrogen Valley in Andalusia and another in Asturias are already included in the PCI list.

Two hydrogen storage projects planned by the internal H2Med project, in Cantabria and the Basque Country, are also on the list and will be financed with part of European funds, as well as three other electric pumping infrastructures, the renewable alternative to store hydroelectric energy. , in Navaleo (León), in Los Guajares (Granada) and Aguayo (Cantabria).

Half a billion to boost electrical networks

In total, the Commission has included eight Spanish projects in the new PCI list, made up of 68 trans-European energy infrastructures, which compared to the last biannual update at the end of 2021, for 2022-2024, which this latest version succeeds, has undergone changes, after Brussels decided not to continue financing energy projects that prolong the use of fossil fuels. Among them the MidCat, which was succeeded by the H2Med to channel renewable – or 'clean' – hydrogen, also including that of nuclear origin, instead of gas.

A sign of the new times and the new energy and emissions reduction objectives, this year's list also includes green ammonia projects in other countries and others are beginning to appear to which the Commission will attach great importance in the coming years to respond to a need shared by countries and companies throughout the EU, to expand, digitalize and modernize electricity networks.

This same Tuesday, it approved an Action Plan to accelerate the deployment of networks, so that they can support the increase in electricity that for years has been generated by the expansion of renewable energies in the EU, from photovoltaics to offshore wind, including electric cars.

According to Brussels, 40% of the electricity distribution networks in the EU are more than 40 years old and cross-border transmission capacity has to double by 2030. For this, it offers 584,000 million euros to finance the necessary investments, which, for example in Spain, are estimated at more than 5,700 million for transportation and more than 22,000 for distribution.

To this end, the Commission encourages companies and countries to identify specific actions to focus investments and indicates as one of the ways the presentation of projects to be included in upcoming lists of Projects of Common Interest.. Other measures are to create a fast track to authorize them, in the style of renewable parks, or to provide regulatory incentives.