Transporting renewable hydrogen from Spain to the Franco German border could cost between €0.60 and €1 per kilogram, according to new estimates from the H2Med Alliance, putting infrastructure costs at a potentially manageable level relative to the wider economics of European green hydrogen.
The estimate, however, comes without a detailed cost breakdown, leaving utilization, tariffs and the cost of producing the hydrogen itself as the more consequential variables for future delivered prices.
The estimate was presented at a September 24 H2Med Alliance event in Madrid by the five transmission system operators behind the corridor: Spain’s Enagás, Portugal’s REN, France’s NaTran and Teréga, and Germany’s OGE. The analysis covers transport through Spain’s hydrogen backbone to the Franco German border rather than the cost of the entire hydrogen supply chain. H2Med’s promoters say transport would therefore represent a relatively small component of the final cost of renewable hydrogen supplied to Central European industrial consumers.
That distinction matters because the €0.60 to €1/kg figure is an infrastructure estimate, not a delivered hydrogen price. It does not establish what Spanish renewable hydrogen will cost at the production site, how much of the pipeline’s capacity will be contracted, or what additional network charges will apply as hydrogen crosses several national systems.
H2Med is being developed around two principal cross border connections. The CelZa link will connect Portugal and Spain, while BarMar will connect Barcelona with the French network near Marseille. Together with the associated national hydrogen backbones, the corridor is designed to connect renewable hydrogen production in the Iberian Peninsula with industrial demand centers in France, Germany and the wider Northwest European market.
The scale is significant. BarMar is planned as an approximately 400 kilometer subsea pipeline with capacity of up to 2 million tonnes of hydrogen per year. The full H2Med system is likewise designed around transport capacity of up to 2 million tonnes annually from Spain and Portugal toward Northwest Europe.
At full capacity, 2 million tonnes represents a substantial flow of hydrogen, but infrastructure scale should not be confused with demonstrated demand. H2Med’s 2024 to 2025 Call for Interest attracted 168 companies representing 528 projects across Portugal, Spain, France and Germany. The exercise was nonbinding, meaning the registrations demonstrate potential market interest rather than contracted future hydrogen volumes.
The market test nevertheless indicated substantial potential supply from the Iberian Peninsula. H2Med’s published analysis identified Spanish export production potential of approximately 1.2 million to 2 million tonnes per year in the early 2030s. That is broadly consistent with the proposed capacity of the corridor, but translating production potential into actual exports will depend on projects reaching final investment decisions, securing renewable electricity, obtaining permits and establishing long term offtake arrangements.
Hydrogen production in Spain can benefit from the country’s substantial solar and wind resources, but the economic case for exporting hydrogen depends on the differential between Iberian production costs and the cost of producing or importing hydrogen closer to European industrial centers. A transport premium of €0.60 to €1/kg could be relatively modest if Iberian producers achieve a sufficiently large production cost advantage. It becomes considerably more material if electrolytic hydrogen remains expensive or if pipeline utilization is low during the early years of operation.
The H2Med partners have not disclosed the assumptions behind the new transport range, including the utilization rate, financing structure, tariff methodology or allocation of costs between the different sections of the corridor. Those variables can materially affect the unit cost of a capital intensive pipeline.
The infrastructure itself illustrates the financing challenge. The H2Med project has an overall estimated investment of €2.85 billion, while the European Union has already provided funding for development work. In January 2025, the Connecting Europe Facility awarded more than €28.3 million to the BarMar project for technical, financial, environmental and permitting studies. The broader EU program allocated €1.25 billion to 41 cross border energy infrastructure projects in that funding round.
The public funding is important because hydrogen infrastructure currently sits between conventional regulated network economics and an emerging commodity market. Unlike established natural gas systems, hydrogen networks cannot yet rely on a mature market with predictable utilization. The EU support is therefore helping move projects through feasibility, engineering and permitting stages before private capital can be committed at construction scale.
BarMar reached another critical stage in July 2026, when it entered Front End Engineering Design following completion of its pre FEED work. The FEED phase is intended to finalize the pipeline design and route, develop the compression station configuration, prepare permitting documentation and establish the technical specifications required for procurement. It will also provide the technical basis for the project’s Final Investment Decision.
The schedule leaves little room for slippage if commercial operation is to begin in 2032. The project’s current development sequence envisages detailed engineering, permitting, procurement and construction before commissioning. H2Med’s own project timeline places implementation between 2027 and 2029 in its broader corridor planning, while the BarMar development process is still moving through engineering and investment decision stages in 2026.
A pipeline designed for 2 million tonnes per year creates value only if sufficient hydrogen is produced and contracted to flow through it. Underutilization would raise the effective infrastructure cost per kilogram, while delays in production projects could leave the network physically available before enough hydrogen is commercially ready. Conversely, strong utilization would allow fixed infrastructure costs to be distributed across larger volumes, improving the economics implied by the H2Med partners’ €0.60 to €1/kg estimate.
The corridor’s value also depends on what happens beyond the Franco German border. H2Med is not a standalone pipeline from Spain to a single customer. It is intended to become part of a wider European hydrogen network, connecting Iberian production with France and Germany and ultimately with industrial demand across Northwest Europe. The European Commission’s hydrogen infrastructure program identifies the Portugal Spain France Germany corridor as a group of interconnected projects rather than a single pipeline, including CelZa, the Spanish hydrogen backbone, BarMar and the France Germany HY-FEN connection.
That network effect is central to the investment case. A Spanish producer does not need to locate directly beside a German customer if hydrogen can move through interconnected transmission systems at predictable tariffs. Similarly, European industrial consumers could gain access to a broader supply pool rather than relying exclusively on domestic production or imports arriving through individual terminals.
But the economics remain dependent on coordination between infrastructure and demand. Spain can develop export capacity, France must provide onward transmission, and Germany must develop sufficient hydrogen consumption and network infrastructure to absorb the volumes. If any part of that chain develops materially slower than the others, the value of the overall corridor could be constrained.
The H2Med partners are therefore attempting to solve more than a transportation problem. The €0.60 to €1/kg estimate suggests that pipeline transportation may not be the dominant cost barrier for Iberian hydrogen reaching Central Europe. The harder question is whether Europe can build a sufficiently liquid market around that infrastructure, with production projects, offtakers, national networks, tariffs and financing structures developing on compatible timelines.
