The As Pontes green hydrogen plant, one of the reference projects in the energy transition process, already has land on which to build.
It will be in O Tesouro, in the space where the offices of the mine were formerly located, where Reganosa and EDPR will materialize a project that will be processed as a “strategic industrial project” and that, if the planned schedule is met, could already be operational in 2025 after an investment of 155 million.
The first vice-president and Regional Minister of Economy, Francisco Conde, went this Tuesday, accompanied by the representatives of the driving companies and the City Council of As Pontes, to the site where the plant will be built, which he highlighted as “key” to “address the process of reindustrialization that we are promoting” in the municipality, affected by the closure of the thermal power plant, because “it will allow linking energy development to the industrial processes in which we are working”.
Conde stressed that this initiative is a “good example of how Galicia is understanding the fair energy transition”, based on “public-private collaboration”, a framework in which, he said, “we will also have to count on the Ministry of Transition to be able to support this project through the Renewable Energy Perte”.
“That collaboration,” he indicated, “is the way to address that energy transition so that it has a positive impact on the generation of employment and opportunities.”
“Reganosa and EDPR”, he emphasized, “have been working on this project for more than two years, it is a mature project” that has been submitted to the Perte of renewables and that the Xunta will process, he stressed, as a “strategic industrial project”, which means a substantial streamlining of the procedure and adjust “to the times required by the EU itself”.
Finally, Conde emphasized the participation of Navantia in the process, which results in the “industrial footprint” of this type of initiatives.
Thus, the Ferrol shipyard will develop part of the electrolyzers needed for the hydrogen plant.
The mayor of As Pontes, Valentín González Formoso, assured that the plant project “has been exciting for a long time” because the municipality “has been a reference in the energy field for decades, and will continue to be”. In this sense, he emphasized that “now, in addition to its presence in renewable and conventional energies, it will also have an important role in an area that is also one of the challenges of the 21st century: energy storage”.
“Hydrogen is a tool that the EU wants to promote to ensure the energy self-sufficiency of our country,” added González Formoso, who thanked Reganosa, EDPR and Xunta “to have counted” with the town. “They know that here they have all the facilities in the world,” he added.
FERROLTERRA AND GREEN ENERGY. For his part, the director of Reganosa, Emilio Bruquetas, valued the “long-term” vision of a project that has been maturing since before the outbreak of the pandemic and has understood “the role that hydrogen will play in the energy systems of the future and, in particular, in Europe from the point of view of security of supply”. “This”, he said, “is one more piece of a global project that we are developing with EDPR to turn Ferrolterra into the capital of green energy”.
Bruquetas highlighted the “help of the City Council” in making available the land on which the plant will be built. “It is a fantastic location,” he said. He also thanked the Xunta for having created the figure of “strategic industrial project” to speed up its processing. “It is basic”, he stressed, “so that we can process it within the deadlines compatible with the execution that we are being asked for”.
In addition, the director of Reganosa considered in his speech that the development of the project is “key” in local employment and, in this sense, he recalled that “we are committed to promoting the entry and integration of all those affected by the just transition”.
