The Ebro Hydrogen Corridor was presented this week, a project that seeks to promote interterritorial connection and serve as a link between the large regional initiatives around renewable hydrogen that are already underway in the northeast of Spain. The Basque Country, Navarra, Aragon and Catalonia will be the four autonomous communities that will be in charge of promoting these initiatives. This new ecosystem is called to play a leading role in the decarbonization of the surrounding industry while improving its competitiveness and attracting new investment.
The project is supported by the Basque Hydrogen Corridor Association (BH2C), ACCIÓ-Agency for Business Competitiveness as the entity responsible for the Hydrogen Valley of Catalonia (H2ValleyCat), the Foundation for the Development of New Hydrogen Technologies in Aragon (Aragon Hydrogen Foundation) as the entity responsible for coordinating the Aragon Hydrogen Valley “GetHyGA Initiative”, and the Navarra Industry Association (AIN) together with the Navarra Development Society (SODENA) as promoters of the Navarra Green Hydrogen Agenda.
Its creation, motivated by the desire to share information, analyze and study complementary actions that establish synergies between the different regional initiatives, was promoted by SHYNE (Spanish Hydrogen Network), Spain’s largest renewable hydrogen multi-sector consortium, launched in January, which plays a fundamental role as a country project due to its integrating effect. Led by Repsol, SHYNE will also provide support to the projects developed in this initiative, capacity for knowledge management and will promote research into pioneering technologies with the aim of positioning Spain at the forefront of this energy vector.
“The hydrogen economy is here to stay; and the bets of communities, companies and industries like these, which are providing critical solutions, are decisive and show the way forward. For this reason, from the Government, we have included a special role for hydrogen in the PERTE [strategic projects for economic recovery and transformation] dedicated to renewable energies, storage and green hydrogen. It is absolutely decisive to add and have corridors that allow to combine the Hydrogen Valleys, the industrial capacity and those final uses to test, expand and grow,” said the Third Vice President and Minister for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge Teresa Ribera.
“Due to its location, the Ebro Hydrogen Corridor will be a key lever to effectively develop the full potential of this geographical area, with a cross-border dimension of the future hydrogen economy, allowing greater integration of value chains at a European level,” commented the CEO of Repsol Josu Jon Imaz, who attended representing the presidency of SHYNE.
The Ebro Hydrogen Corridor will promote actions in all areas, including production, transport, uses and storage. As for the final uses of renewable hydrogen, it will be stimulated in the transport sector: the project will encourage the creation of a network with 20 hydrogen stations in 2025, an infrastructure that will have up to 100 facilities in 2030, allowing the deployment of hydrogen in land, sea and rail transport.
Renewable hydrogen is one of the main energy vectors to achieve the decarbonization of the economy thanks mainly to its versatility. Hydrogen is already used in the industrial sector. But this gas also has many other uses; it is a clean fuel, in mobility it is used in the production of synthetic fuels or in fuel cells and can also be used to store renewable energy, thus solving the intermittence of wind and solar photovoltaic production. Coordination between all regional initiatives is a fundamental piece to achieve an efficient deployment of the hydrogen economy and to achieve national and European objectives.
Source: Repsol
