The Spanish government gave the green light on Tuesday July 30 to the start of work on the H2Med pipeline project between Barcelona and Marseille, intended to supply northern Europe with green hydrogen produced in the Iberian Peninsula by 2030.
The company Enagas, manager of the Spanish gas network, has been "authorized" to exercise its "development functions" for several installations linked to the "H2Med" project, indicates the executive in a press release.
This green light, approved by the Council of Ministers, concerns “the construction, commissioning, monitoring and maintenance of pipeline and underground storage projects” of hydrogen, the press release specifies.
This concerns, in particular, an interconnection between Spain and Portugal, an interconnection between Spain and France (called "BarMar", a contraction of Barcelona-Marseille) and underground storage spaces for hydrogen.
“The step that the Spanish government has taken today is decisive in making H2Med a reality,” said the general director of Enagas, Arturo Gonzalo, in a press release.
“This project is expected to become the backbone of the future hydrogen Europe”, essential to stimulate “the competitiveness of our industry, decarbonization” and the “strategic autonomy” of the EU, he said. he adds.
The H2Med project, firmly defended by Madrid and Berlin, should make it possible to transport so-called “green” hydrogen – because it is made from renewable electricity – to the countries of northern Europe, via France.
It replaced the "MidCat", launched in 2003 to connect the French and Spanish gas networks via the Pyrenees but abandoned a few years later due to its lack of economic interest and opposition from environmental associations.
H2Med was declared a “project of common interest” by Brussels at the beginning of April. According to its designers, it will enable nearly 2030% of the hydrogen consumed in Europe to be transported by 10, or nearly two million tonnes per year.
The objective is to accelerate the decarbonization of European industry, by giving it access to clean energy, produced on a large scale in Spain and Portugal thanks to numerous wind and photovoltaic farms.
This project, however, faces a series of obstacles linked in particular to the nature of hydrogen, made up of small, aggressive molecules that are difficult to transport, which cast doubt on the deadlines set for its completion.
