Spain will soon launch its €1.3bn ($1.35bn) hydrogen hub funding scheme and has set aside €400m ($415.7m) for green hydrogen projects that missed out on EU-wide auction subsidies.
That was the message from Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez who was speaking at network operator Enagas’ Hydrogen Day event today (January 29).
Sánchez revealed that the Spanish Government would unveil its preliminary plans for its €1.3bn direct subsidy scheme for hydrogen hubs in the coming weeks. It follows a consultation launched in July.
Sánchez added that €400m from Spain’s Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP) – set aside for a national green hydrogen auction – will support projects that received a “positive evaluation” in the EU’s European Hydrogen Bank (EHB) pilot auction but missed out on funding.
Of the six projects securing funding from the EHB auction, three are in Spain. The new €400m will be allocated through the European Commission’s Auction-as-a-Service scheme.
Sánchez stressed that the country’s economy was growing thanks to its decarbonisation effort, saying that its “green, baby green” approach was “giving great results.”
“The economy is growing, we are sharing wealth better and we are caring for the planet like never before in Spain,” the PM said.
Sánchez described Spain as “one of the world’s epicentre, perhaps the most promising of them all,” for green hydrogen.
The PM said green hydrogen had been gaining competitiveness in the country’s economy, as reflected by the “massive support” from investors and companies.
Spain has been attempting to position itself as one of Europe’s green hydrogen-producing powerhouses, with hopes of using its low-cost and abundant renewable energy resources to drive forward plans.
Last September the government unveiled plans to see green hydrogen meet 74% of its industrial hydrogen demand by 2030 and trebled its installed electrolyser capacity target to 12GW.
Read more:Spain targets 74% industrial green hydrogen by 2030 and trebles electrolyser goals
However, the speech from Sánchez comes after Spain’s minority government proposal to extend a 1.2% windfall tax on energy firms with revenues over €1bn ($1.04bn) was rejected in parliament.
Both Repsol and Moeve (previously Cepsa) warned that they would look to develop hydrogen plants elsewhere if the proposal was passed.
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