The Minister of Industry and Tourism, Jordi Hereu, has taken stock of the different PERTEs managed by his department, with a special emphasis on the automotive industry and the decarbonisation of production processes.

The Council of Ministers has approved a Royal Decree regulating the direct granting of a subsidy to the company Cobra Solutions for an amount of 150 million euros, for the execution of the Green Cobra project, within the framework of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan.

The project aims to develop a complete green hydrogen supply chain in Spain, including the production, storage, transportation and distribution of hydrogen, said the Minister of Industry and Tourism, Jordi Hereu, at the press conference following the Council of Ministers.

This project, which will be located in Cartagena and Castellón, is defined by the EU as an Important Project of Common European Interest (IPCEI) and, therefore, the RD determines that the reasons that accredit the public, social and economic interest for the granting of this subsidy of 150 million euros are met. The project foresees investments by Cobra of 742 million euros, and is estimated to have an impact on employment of around more than 500 direct jobs, and more than 600 indirect jobs.

“We estimate a reduction in CO2 emissions during hydrogen production of one million tons over the life of the project,” according to Hereu.

Status of the PERTE managed by Industry

In his appearance, Minister Hereu has taken stock of the current situation of the different PERTEs managed by his department: PERTE VEC, Agri-Food, Naval and Industrial Decarbonisation. He also participates in the management, together with other Ministries, of the PERTEs of Microelectronics and Vanguard Health.

According to the Minister of Industry, “we are at a key moment, as the PERTES already awarded are entering the most important phase: we are moving from large figures to reality. We are putting a face and name to the billions of euros invested, which translate into more employment and more opportunities.”

The Ministry of Industry and Tourism will manage more than 12 billion euros in the 2021-2026 period of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan.

The PERTE for Industrial Decarbonisation has four lines of funding, of which 1,000 million euros have already been called for from line 1. In this regard, the Ministry already definitively approved last July 97.5 million euros of subsidies for 14 industrial projects for decarbonisation of the manufacturing industry. And in August the first 140 million euros of line 4 were called for.

793 million euros have been granted from PERTE VEC in the first call, with emblematic projects such as the Volkswagen gigafactory in Sagunto or the Envision in Extremadura. From the second call, 608 million have been granted in the battery line. The value chain line is in the resolution phase. The minister has announced that this month the beneficiaries of the third call for PERTE VEC batteries, endowed with 300 million euros, will probably be known. And the window will open for the value chain line for 200 million euros.

From the Agro-Food PERTE, 182 million euros have been awarded to 223 companies in the first call. The second call will be launched in mid-September with 100 million euros.

As regards the Naval PERTE, the minister recalled that 81 million euros have been awarded to 4 leading projects. In the first call for proposals, 26.8 million euros were awarded to KDPOF and 38.6 million to Semidinamics for the PERTE Chip. There will be a second call for proposals with 200 million euros before the end of the year.

Finally, within the Ministry of Industry and Tourism's work in the PERTE for Vanguardia Health, 27.53 million have been awarded to a total of 19 projects.

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