Spain is pursuing an ambitious plan to become the most important producer of green hydrogen in Europe. A factory in the small town of Puertollano is to start operations soon.
According to its national strategy, Spain wants to create the conditions for producing four gigawatts of green hydrogen per year by the end of 2030. An elementary part of this plan is the hydrogen factory, which the power producer Iberdrola wants to put into operation soon in the small town of Puertollano.
Near the city of 40,000 inhabitants, which used to live from hard coal mining, there is now a photovoltaic system of over 200 hectares with a generation capacity of one hundred megawatts – this is where the green electricity required for the production of green hydrogen is to come from, reports the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ).
67 gigawatts of generation capacity
The 20-megawatt electrolyser is expected to produce around 3,000 tons of green hydrogen in its first year. In a first step, this should cover about one tenth of the energy requirements of an artificial fertilizer factory located next door.
So far, this has been working with grey hydrogen – 48,000 tonnes of carbon emissions can be avoided by the ten percent of the energy that Iberdrola wants to cover with green hydrogen alone. By 2027, the production capacity of the hydrogen factory is expected to be 40,000 tons of green hydrogen.
However, Spain’s plans are even more ambitious: The “HyDeal” consortium, which consists of 30 Spanish and international companies, is planning to build hydrogen factories with a total capacity of up to 67 gigawatts.
According to the FAZ, a large part of this will be exported to France and Germany in order to replace Russian gas with hydrogen.
Hydrogen boom must not become a hydrogen bubble
Said the director of the “National Center for Hydrogen” in an interview with the FAZ.
The development has exceeded the most optimistic forecasts.
“Spain is now responsible for one in five hydrogen projects in the world. We were a kind of incubator.”
However, it will probably be some time before Spain really becomes the “hub of the green hydrogen industry in Europe” announced by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. Luis Merino, editor-in-chief of the industry magazine “Energías Renovables”, warns of a “hydrogen euphoria” fueled by the media.
The planned and partly already made investments of the energy companies are considerable, but “only in the medium term will green hydrogen play an important role in Spain”. Above all, you have to plan well now so that the boom does not become a bubble.
If things continue as before, however, the chances for green hydrogen are good: Natural gas prices have risen massively throughout Europe in recent weeks. Since the gas is needed to produce so-called grey hydrogen, the form of production of hydrogen that is by far the most widely used in industry, the prices of grey hydrogen are also rising.
Depending on how high the electricity generation costs are, green hydrogen now has a real cost advantage for the first time.
Source: Hydrogen instead of Russian gas: Spain launches huge H2 offensive
Read the most up to date Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Industry news at FuelCellsWorks
