Enagás CEO Arturo Gonzalo stressed that Spain has a key geographical position, significant renewable generation potential, a robust infrastructure network and the necessary industrial capacity. In this respect, he pointed out that “the collaboration of all agents is essential”.
Spain’s potential as Europe’s leading renewable hydrogen hub
The European Hydrogen Backbone (EHB) initiative, in which Enagás participates together with the main European TSOs, has been studying for some time how the demand for hydrogen will be distributed in Europe and what the maximum production potential of each country would be, and has highlighted the need for a network that brings supply and demand closer together.
REPowerEU envisages the development of five hydrogen corridors to connect producer countries with demand centres. In this context, Spain stands out as a potential major producer of green hydrogen with huge capacity to export to other countries and with a key role in achieving the European consumption target of 20 million tonnes of hydrogen by 2030, of which 10 million tonnes would be produced in Europe.
Enagás has presented a study which concludes that, with the data available today, it estimates a renewable hydrogen production potential in Spain of between 2 and 3 million tonnes in 2030, and between 3 and 4 million tonnes by 2040. To this last figure should be added the 750,000 tonnes that are expected to be received from Portugal through the interconnection.
As regards the demand for renewable hydrogen in Spain, estimates for 2030 are 1.3 million tonnes and an export through a maritime connection between Barcelona and Marseille (BarMar) of up to 2 million tonnes, which is equivalent to 10% of the total expected demand in Europe in 2030. Seaborne exports of around 450,000 tonnes are also expected.
