Francesco La Camera, the director-general of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), feels that Spain has the potential to be a significant green hydrogen exporter.
“With its unique geographical location between Europe and North Africa, and the prospect of producing renewable energy and possibly green hydrogen at cheap cost, Spain has enormous potential to become a leading country in green hydrogen export,” La Camera said in an interview with Efe.
IRENA is an intergovernmental organization based in Abu Dhabi that assists nations in making the transition to a sustainable energy future. Its director-general was in Barcelona this week for the Green Hydrogen Global Assembly.
Green hydrogen is produced using renewable energy sources such as wind or solar energy and is produced by an electrolysis process that breaks down the water molecule into oxygen and hydrogen using an electric current.
However, one of the major obstacles facing this 100 percent renewable energy source is lowering its still-high manufacturing costs.
Overall, La Camera believes that “in the medium future, present geopolitical tensions, mostly caused by the crisis in Ukraine, as well as high fossil fuel costs, will speed the shift to renewable energy,” and that green hydrogen will be a competitive technology.
In this sentence, he claims that “renewable energy is already the cheapest choice throughout most places of the globe and entirely competitive with fossil fuels,” and that “year after year, the installed power of renewables expands in the world to the harm of fossil fuels.”
When asked if he feels that prolonging the war in Ukraine will undermine the EU’s energy policy unity of action, La Camera avoids political concerns, yet he believes that the EU’s commitment to a completely decarbonized economy is the “correct measure.”
It also claims that the REPowerEU package, which aims to reduce the EU’s reliance on Russian oil and gas, is the “quickest route to become fossil-fuel independent, provide cheap energy for people and companies, and improve economic development and competitiveness.”
When asked about Spain’s present energy mix and if the country is well-positioned for the energy transition, he emphasizes that the country is a “renewable energy pioneer.”
He emphasizes, “I thank the Spanish politicians for creating a political framework that has allowed Spain to become one of Europe’s fastest-growing renewable energy markets.”
The director-general of IRENA says he is “encouraged by the news that critical infrastructure solutions are now on their way to better connect Spain with the rest of Europe” at a time when the war in Ukraine has reignited debate over the resumption of the Midcat gas pipeline, which would link Spain and France through Catalonia.
Despite Spain’s capabilities in renewables, La Camera insists that green hydrogen consumption must be boosted.
