Spain

Country: Spain

Document type: National Roadmap

Title: Hydrogen Roadmap – A commitment to Renewable Hydrogen (English translation enabled)

(Spanish language release)

(English language Executive Summary)

Released: October 2020

Summary Points:

  • The roadmap outlines a set of national targets for renewable hydrogen by 2030, including:
    • Production – Installation of 4 GW of electrolyser capacity, with an intermediate milestone of between 300-600 MW by 2024.
    • Industry – 25% of industrial hydrogen consumption to be from renewable sources.
    • Mobility – fleet of at least 150 buses, 5,000 light and heavy vehicles and two commercial train lines to be powered by renewable hydrogen, as well as introduction of (renewable) hydrogen-powered handling machinery at the main five ports and airports.
  • A set of 60 measures grouped by key policy areas support implementation, with key points including:
    • Regulatory actions, including development of a system of Guarantees of Origin that ensures hydrogen is produced from renewable sources.
    • Design of financial instruments to support hydrogen-intensive industries in the uptake of renewable hydrogen.
    • Identification of ‘consumption poles’ in order to create ‘hydrogen valleys’.
    • Sectoral measures to encourage renewable hydrogen projects and use.
    • Promotion of R&D across the hydrogen value chain and the national development of ‘high-powered’ electrolysers (100 MW scale).
  • It is estimated that the private and public investment to 2030 required to implement the strategy is at around €8.9 billion.

In December 2021, the Spanish Government announced the Strategic Project for Economic Recovery and Transformation (PETRE) of Renewable Energies, Renewable Hydrogen and Storage (ERHA). This mechanism aims to allocate €6.9 billion of public funds supporting ERHA technologies with a further €9.5 billion expected to be mobilised from the private sector. Of the total of €6.9 billion of public funding, around €1.55 billion is to be allocated to development of renewable hydrogen (with expectations to mobilise €2.8 billion of private sector investment). Funding support under this PETRE is expected to be available during 2022-2023. In December 2022, media reports indicated that the first grants of €250 million from the PETRE ERHA were awarded to 29 projects encompassing up to 487 MW of electrolyser capacity.

In October 2022, the EC approved under the Guidelines on State Aid for Climate, Environmental Protection and Energy 2022, €220 million grant funding to Cobra Instalaciones y Servicios, S.A. (‘COBRA’) to support the construction and installation of electrolysers in the Cartagena and Castellon regions of Spain (with the two electrolysers expected to have a total capacity of 205 MW).

In October 2022, it was reported that Spain, Portugal and France had agreed to build a sea-based pipeline (H2Med) to carry hydrogen and gas between Barcelona and Marseille. In December 2022, it was further reported that the pipeline would be exclusively dedicated to green hydrogen, would cost around €2.5 billion, would have capacity to transport two million tonnes of hydrogen per annum, and should be completed by 2030. The report noted that the three countries would submit the project to the EC for declaration as a ’project of common interest’. In January 2023, it was announced that, as part of a French-German declaration, the two countries would take the necessary steps on a European backbone for hydrogen transport across Europe, including the necessary national and transnational hydrogen infrastructures and, in particular, the extension and connection of existing and planned infrastructures, including extension of the H2Med pipeline to Germany in close cooperation with involved partners.

In January 2023, media reports indicated the Spanish Government would implement a (new) grant award of €74 million to accelerate implementation of four projects – three being for electrolyser manufacture and one for the development of hydrogen-powered heavy transport vehicles.

In February 2023, the European Commission approved, under EU State aid rules, a €460 million Spanish measure to support ArcelorMittal to partially decarbonise its steel production facility in Gijón, where it operates two blast furnaces producing liquid hot metal. The aid will support the construction of a renewable hydrogen-based direct reduced iron plant. The plant is envisioned to start operating by the end of 2025.

In June 2023, the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO) announced aid totalling €100 million in supporting large electrolyser-based projects for the production of renewable hydrogen. The program is included in the Strategic Project for the Reconstruction and Economic Transformation of Renewable Energies, Renewable Hydrogen and Storage (PERTE ERHA) and seeks to promote both the development of electrolysis demonstrators and initiatives for the integration of large capacity electrolysers in industrial environments. The Program has awarded aid support of €10 and €15 million to seven projects in five autonomous communities.

In June 2023, press reporting indicated that the Spanish Government, in a draft of its updated Energy and Climate Plan, had set a target of reaching 11 GW of installed electrolyser capacity by 2030, up from 4 GW. The new plan also sees increased wind generation, photovoltaic solar generation and power storage capacity targets of 62 GW, 76 GW and 22 GW respectively. The draft is out for consultation until September 4, 2023.

 

Updated: July 2023