It will cost 2.5 billion euros of which the European Union could finance 50%. And it tries to produce 10% of the Hydrogen that the EU consumes in 2030, some two million tons a year out of a total of twenty, ten generated in the EU itself and the rest imported from third countries.
The leaders of Spain, France and Portugal have announced it in Alicante, with the "blessing" of the President of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen, who has acted as "hostess", given that the meeting with Pedro Sánchez, Emmanuel Macron and Antonio Costa has been held in an EU body, the EUIPO, European Intellectual Property Office based in Alicante.
The presence of Von der Leyen represents a definitive political endorsement of a project that requires connecting Portugal and Spain, through Zamora, and Barcelona and Marseille by submarine, as more complex points of the infrastructure that, in principle, is designed for exclusive transport of green Hydrogen and will not be in operation until 2030. This project, he said, "goes in the right direction" and is "a project of interest" for the whole of the EU. It is also open to the possibility of connecting with other riparian countries, such as Morocco.
The Portuguese Prime Minister, Antonio Costa, believes that the Iberian Peninsula "reinforces our position as producers and exporters of hydrogen to the rest of Europe." Which affects the condition of leaders "in the production of renewable energy" that Portugal and Spain already hold.
President Macron considers that the project "is totally consistent with the collective strategy" of the EU because it affects three objectives: the reduction of emissions, industrialization and innovation to be more competitive, and the increase in energy sovereignty. Macron has mentioned the possible incorporation of third countries, which is interpreted as a gesture towards Italy.
For Pedro Sánchez, it is about "reinforcing energy security and strategic autonomy" of the countries involved in the project and the EU itself, which would see reduced "dependence on countries that use energy as a form of blackmail", in a clear reference to Russia.
The meeting, postponed in September, had to take place on these dates because the H2Med has to be presented before December 15 before the European Union to be considered as a "project of common interest" and qualify for the intended financing - a maximum of 50% on an estimated cost of 2.85 billion euros, which is the total cost including the connection between Portugal and Zamora.
After the appearance before the media, which took place in the imposing auditorium of the European Intellectual Property Office, the leaders went to the Casa del Mediterráneo for a lunch in which the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, who has excused his attendance due to a sudden flu. Yes, they are in Alicante, in addition to the aforementioned Von der Leyen, Macron, Costa and Sánchez, the leaders of Greece, Malta, Cyprus, Slovenia and Croatia, who participate in the afternoon in the EU summit of Mediterranean countries.
One of the issues to be resolved in the future will be the possibility of "hydroducts" being used to transport natural gas. The project is proposed as exclusively for the transfer of green hydrogen, but government sources assure that there are still many years to go before its start-up and it will be then, according to the current situation and technological development, when this will have to be considered. possibility. The same sources ensure that, if necessary, it is technically feasible, since the pipeline designed for hydrogen meets the necessary requirements to house natural gas, which is not the case.
