When the Green Hydrogen Underground Corridor between Barcelona and Marseille is expected to begin functioning in 2030, Spain may already be in a position to create it for both domestic use and export.
This is a component of the government’s strategy for green hydrogen, which aims to supply the market in seven years and make Spain an energy exporter at costs that, by then, it anticipates will be far more affordable than natural gas pricing.
This Friday in Alicante, in a meeting before the Euro-Mediterranean Summit, Pedro Sánchez, Emmanuel Macron, and António Costa, Prime Minister of Portugal, will officially introduce this project, which replaces the MidCat. Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, will also be present. This is meant to ensure that the Bar Mar project will be recognized as a European Project of Common Interest (PCI) and receive funding from the EU.
The government’s projected deadline of 2030 for the BarMar to begin operations and its prediction that Spain will already be an exporter of green hydrogen by that year almost eliminate the possibility of natural gas being temporarily circulated through it until then. That was Sanchez’s initial goal, but Macron rejected it, and the underwater corridor arrangement was a compromise that ultimately favored Paris’ interests.
Until 2030
This will be the very first phase of the proposal to build a “hydro duct” beneath the sea between Barcelona and Marseille, and no technical specifics have yet been established. However, sources for Ecological Transition indicate that it won’t start operating until 2030.
The third vice president, Teresa Ribera, estimated that the work on the Spanish side of the MidCat, a gas pipeline with the potential to transport green hydrogen in the future that would pass beneath the Pyrenees to connect France and Spain, could be finished by the end of next year when she was still supporting its construction. The timelines are extended when a project switches from being terrestrial to being underwater, firstly because it can take up to two years for political leaders to give the final “ok” and for all bureaucratic processes to be completed, in addition to the four or five years it might take to build an infrastructure that is more technically complex than if it were terrestrial and for which various routes are currently being considered.
The government expects to be able to produce green hydrogen now for both internal and export use by 2030, assuming the hydrogen corridor actually gets up and running.
Swapping out grey hydrogen
The Hydrogen Roadmap projects that green hydrogen, whose separation uses only electricity from renewable sources, will replace 25% of the gray hydrogen used by the industry. Gray hydrogen requires natural gas to make electrolysis, which separates it from other components in which it is contained. This equates to a 4 gigawatt installed capacity and 25% of Spain’s yearly use of 500,000 tons of hydrogen.
Sources for the Ecological Transition, however, dare to assert that this process might move more quickly because of the innovative projects that have already received funding or are in the process of doing so, as well as the urgency that the current energy crisis has placed on the deployment of renewable energy sources.
As mentioned, the initiatives to install green hydrogen power reach 16 GW, or four times more than if they were successfully built, they could replace 100% of the gray hydrogen utilized by the industry in 2030. In the Ribera department, they remark, “Reality will overcome us, and maybe in 2030 we will be exporters.” Unsurprisingly, starting in that year, Spain is expected to have at least 150 buses, 5,000 light, and heavy vehicles, and two commercial train lines powered by hydrogen.
Avoid replicating Algeria’s reliance
However, under the Ecological Transition, there is also no doubt the goal of Spain being an export “center” of renewable hydrogen to other nations, which is repeated by the Government in both active and passive ways.
Since it is unknown if the undersea tunnel between Barcelona and Marseille will be completed, the government intends to use it to pump green hydrogen to transport it to northern Europe. The nations of North Africa are a possible rival to Spain to the south, but they also serve as a reminder of the mistakes they do not want to make with green hydrogen.
Egypt and Algeria, for example, are getting ready to become green hydrogen powerhouses. The shipping behemoth Maersk chose Madrid and Cairo to provide sustainable fuel for its fleet. To safeguard future supplies, other EU nations have already signed deals with Maghreb nations.
The vast amount of water required to create the electrical process—electrolysis—by which hydrogen is separated from other elements—is one area where the Spanish Government is in a better position than the other competitors. The Ministry believes that by ceasing the production of gray hydrogen, which requires more water than green, renewable hydrogen, it will be possible to offset this “clear” demand for water. They claim that because there will be less demand, water will not be a “limited factor” in Spain or that its usage will not divert it from other uses, including agriculture. According to sources, the need for water in North Africa is anticipated to put the region’s hydrogen production under just as much pressure as it already does in its industry or agriculture.
In any event, the Government does not focus as much on the export capacities of other nations as it does on Spain’s own, as it is obvious that green hydrogen will not have the same impact as natural gas, for which it is mostly dependent on Algeria or, generally speaking, other producing nations.
The government is aware that North Africa will present Spain with a different option for producing renewable hydrogen, but it also intends to avoid making the same mistakes it did in the past by avoiding energy dependence on other nations.
The pipeline is more affordable than a ship
The distance between the Maghreb and the EU has a significant impact on the competition that North Africa poses for Spain as a potential hydrogen exporter since the shorter the distance, the more competitive the transport of green hydrogen via pipeline as opposed to ship is.
Ecological Transition calculated that although it is still in the experimental, research, and development stage, the price of green hydrogen is approaching that of the gas and hydrogen produced with it.
A kilogram of blue hydrogen, which is produced from natural gas, was estimated to cost roughly two euros in 2020 and about 1.5 euros for a kilogram of natural gas. Green hydrogen’s cost soared, reaching seven or eight euros per kilogram.
Two years later, the energy crisis’s effects on gas prices, technological advancements, and the focus on renewable energy have made green hydrogen nearly or even price-competitive with natural gas. Currently, the price of blue hydrogen is roughly equal to that of green hydrogen, which has decreased in price, to five euros per kilogram.
When it comes to short distances, shipping green hydrogen is more expensive on a wholesale basis than using a pipeline—in this case, a hydro pipeline—as is currently the case with natural gas. When the roles are reversed and boat transportation is more affordable than tube transportation, it is after 2,500 kilometers. Spain would be closer to that at this stage than North Africa. 338 kilometers separate Barcelona from Marseille by water, while 1,075 kilometers separate Algiers from Livorno.
From the interior to the seaside
All of these export plans are being implemented in the first place because the current R + D and development of green hydrogen projects are producing energy in plants that will primarily border the Spanish coast and, to a lesser extent, leave empty areas of Spain that are currently depopulated, where the government believes there is ample space to install wind farms or photovoltaic panels.
The projects to produce renewable hydrogen are depicted on a map by Ecological Transition as following one another down the Mediterranean coast until they reach the Atlantic and almost touch Portugal. They are also common in large numbers in the middle, around Madrid, and along the Cantabrian coast, to the north.
According to ministry sources, these places are where the industry is located in the area where these projects are being created and, in reference to the shore, where other countries could go to purchase it. They claim that the creation of a map that partially ignores the regions impacted by depopulation, such as Castilla-La Mancha, Extremadura, or a significant portion of Castilla y León, is because it is simpler to locate them close to the potential consumer.
In keeping with the industrial rationale, regions that have closed thermal power plants or mines are preserved, such as León, Galicia’s interior, or Aragon, where R+D projects are already present.
