Europe’s largest green hydrogen plant for industrial use has attracted all the attention at the Dubai Expo on Spain Day. The project, developed by Iberdrola and located in the Spanish pavilion, was visited by the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, who presided over the day.
The plant is being finalised in Puertollano (Ciudad Real). With an investment of 150 million euros, the initiative will create up to 700 jobs and avoid emissions of 48,000 tCO2/year.
The green hydrogen produced there will be used in Fertiberia’s ammonia factory in the town. This will enable the manufacture of fertilisers without using fossil fuels or emitting carbon dioxide, helping to reduce the climate footprint of the agricultural sector.
The Prime Minister reaffirmed Spain’s firm commitment to clean energy, stressing the importance of allocating resources to transforming the energy system in order to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and escape price volatility, on the one hand, and to move towards full decarbonisation of the economy by 2050, on the other.
The main objectives are to build an energy transition designed and manufactured in Spain and to increase the economic, innovation and employment opportunities of the associated industry in order to position Spain as a technological benchmark in clean energies. With respect to hydrogen, the goal is for Spain to contribute at least 10% of the 40 gigawatts of production expected to be achieved in the European Union.
Spain plans to mobilise more than 16 billion euros to accelerate the green revolution, of which 1.5 billion euros will be allocated until 2023 to the development of green hydrogen in the country, given the great production potential of this energy vector.
In its commitment to leading the energy transition, Iberdrola is spearheading the development of green hydrogen with more than 60 projects in eight countries (Spain, the United Kingdom, Brazil, and the United States, among others) to respond to the electrification and decarbonisation needs of sectors such as industry and heavy transport. The company has created a new green hydrogen business unit with which it aims to position itself as a world leader in this technology. The group is thus at the forefront of the new technological challenge of producing and supplying hydrogen from clean energy sources.
Iberdrola has also started to produce green hydrogen in Barcelona’s Zona Franca, which will supply Barcelona’s metropolitan buses and the trains of CAF following a recently signed alliance.
Within Iberdrola’s investment plan to 2030, which totals 150 billion euros, green hydrogen will be a major growth vector. Iberdrola is already developing several projects that will enable the decarbonisation of industry and heavy transport in Spain and the United Kingdom, as well as developing its value chain. The group currently has a green hydrogen portfolio that will require investments of more than 3 billion euros by 2030 for the production of 134,000 tonnes per year. The company has also submitted 54 projects to the Next Generation EU programme, which would trigger investments of 2.5 billion euros to achieve an annual production of 60,000 tonnes of green hydrogen.
The World Expo is being held in the capital of the Emirates until 31 March 2022 and features pavilions from 192 countries, including the Spanish Pavilion for its striking bioclimatic architecture adapted to a desert environment.
