Repsol has done its homework this summer and has reached October in a position to give a blow to the renewable board. The first Spanish oil company has already started the production of green hydrogen on an industrial scale for the Petronor facilities in Muskiz (Vizcaya), a milestone that until now had only been achieved in Spain by the electricity company Iberdrola, which activated its first electrolyzer in Puertollano hand in hand from Fertiberia in May of last year.
The alliance that Repsol and Petronor presented this Monday consists of a first electrolyzer (technology with which water molecules are separated to generate green hydrogen) with a capacity of 2.5 megawatts (MW), which is equivalent to a production of 350 tons of renewable hydrogen per year.
The project, which has mobilized an investment of 11 million euros, is part of the so-called Basque Hydrogen Corridor (BH2C), one of the clusters (strategic production and distribution areas) of this clean fuel projected in Spain, among which also There are those of the Mediterranean or the Ebro.
The idea is that this facility, which has been operating at full capacity although still in the testing phase for several weeks, will be resized in the coming years, first expanding to 10 MW and, finally, to 100 MW.. To understand the magnitude, Iberdrola's electrolysis project in Puertollano, also in a first phase of development, is considered one of the largest in the world and has a capacity of 20 MW, which translates into just under 3,000 tons of hydrogen annual green.
“Technology over ideology”
The presentation event held today at the Ezkerraldea-Meatzaldea technology park in Biscay brought together the president, Iñigo Urkullu, the CEO of Repsol, Josu Jon Imaz; to the president of Petronor, Emiliano López Atxurra and Antón Arriola, president of Kutxabank (entity that owns 14% of Petronor). In addition, regional authorities such as Elixabete Etxanobe, general deputy of Bizkaia, attended the launch of the joint project.
In Europe we are going to lose the technological race due to ideological closure
In his speech, Imaz echoed a speech that he has persistently defended for months before authorities and investors.. “While in the US they are betting on technological neutrality, in Europe we are on the path of prohibition,” said the CEO of Repsol.. And he anticipated: “We are going to lose a technological race because of an ideological closure that is threatening the technologies that will help us decarbonize the economy.”.
Imaz has insisted that “we must let technology and not ideology” determine which solutions succeed in the new renewable paradigm. Emiliano López Atxurra, president of Petronor, who opened this Monday's event, spoke along the same lines: “There is no energy transition without a technological and industrial strategy.. Not even without an adequate regulatory framework. The rest is birds and flowers.” López Atxurra has taken pride in this first electrolyzer that he has described as “the first step on the decarbonization ladder.”