The solar business RIC Energy, a pioneer in the industry in Spain and present on four continents, will open its first hydrogen production plant in Arroyo in 2024.
After a 25 million euro investment, the arrival of this enterprise in the Polgono de la Encomienda will result in the creation of roughly a hundred employees.
A green hydrogen manufacturing facility fueled by energy supplied by a solar plant near this industrial sector in Arroyo is the focus of the new initiative. As a result, RIC Energy’s facility will have a power capacity of 170 megawatts.
During the building phase, the facility will employ roughly “70 or 80 individuals,” with 15 direct employment envisaged once the installation is operating, including “qualified professionals” in charge of operational and maintenance chores. The construction, pending permits, search for partners, and application for subsidies, would begin in the fourth quarter of 2022, with the first phase of the project expected to begin in 2024, “but with the idea of growing, since it can adapt production to market demand at all times,” according to Rubén Rodrguez, RIC Energy’s person in charge of the green hydrogen initiative, who noted that its capacity could be tripled and quadrupled in the coming years.
In this vein, the business highlights the prospect of assigning Arroyo’s hydrogen to various applications, including “gas injection” due to the network’s proximity to the industrial complex. Furthermore, Rubén Rodrguez notes that “industrial groups have been identified in the area with a great deal of interest in decarbonization through hydrogen, primarily for industrial heat processes” to replace natural gas, as well as the possibilities of using it for mobility, as an alternative fuel for all types of vehicles: both urban and interurban transportation, as well as logistics companies.
ARROYO’S SELECTION
After its arrival in Puertollano (Ciudad Real), “a facility with a substantial industrial and petrochemical usage,” RIC Energy has picked Arroyo de la Encomienda as the second Spanish enclave for its growth in the field of green hydrogen. “Arroyo has the ideal circumstances for this sort of initiative,” says Rodrguez, citing existing infrastructure as well as potential customers and the fact that it is a “strategic enclave.”
At the project presentation event on Thursday at the Arroyo Town Hall, the municipality’s mayor, Sarbelio Fernández, praised RIC Energy’s decision, saying, “This is yet another indication of Arroyo’s attractiveness.” We show the outer world a vibrant and forward-thinking Arroyo».
