Macron, EU leaders launch €2.5billion hydrogen pipeline between Spain and France

An ambitious underwater pipeline to bring hydrogen from the Iberian Peninsula to the rest of Europe will be completed by 2030 and cost some 2.5 billion euros, the leaders of France, Spain and Portugal said Friday.

Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, French President Emmanuel Macron, Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen attend a news conference at the end of the Green Hydrogen Corridor Summit Barcelona-Marseille (H2MED), an annex event to the IX Euro-Mediterranean Summit (EU-MED9), in Alicante, Spain, December 9, 2022. REUTERS/Violeta Santos Moura REUTERS - VIOLETA SANTOS MOURA

An underwater pipeline to carry green hydrogen between Spain and France will cost about €2.5 billion euros, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Friday, adding he hoped the European Union would partly fund the project.

The pipeline between Barcelona and Marseille will have a capacity of 2 million tonnes a year and be ready by the end of the decade, Sanchez said at a summit of Mediterranean European Union leaders in the southeastern Spanish port city of Alicante.

🚨#H2Med hydrogen corridor announced🚨

Connects 🇵🇹➡️🇪🇸 and then 🇪🇸➡️🇫🇷. Linking Iberian production & storage capacity to continental grid. Major bottleneck set to be overcome, huge step for #RepowerEU.

🟢 Operational by 2030
💰 PCI applicant

👏👏

⬇️https://t.co/LEvLnTNgRv pic.twitter.com/fnkFAiPMkv

— James Kneebone (@JamesKneebone1) December 9, 2022

"It is going to be the first major hydrogen corridor in the European The decision to pursue the project comes as an energy crisis caused by the war in Ukraine has accelerated European plans to bolster renewable energy as an alternative to Russian gas.

"Hydrogen is a game changer for Europe," von der Leyen said. "We want to make hydrogen a central part of our energy system in the transition to climate neutrality."

• France's green hydrogen pioneers aim to revolutionise energy production

Green hydrogen is made from electrolysers powered by renewable energy. Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa said the Iberian peninsula's abundance of sunshine and wind used for renewable energy would make producing the hydrogen competitive.

French President Emmanuel Macron said the pipeline could also be used to send hydrogen produced in France from nuclear energy - so-called red hydrogen - in the opposite direction.

"Window dressing"

The submarine pipeline was proposed in October as a substitute for the so-called MidCat gas pipeline project across the Pyrenees, which had been championed by Spain and Portugal who said it could relieve immediate pressure on gas supplies.

Paris opposed that plan, arguing that two existing pipelines across the Pyrenees which divide the Iberian Peninsula from France were already under-utilised.

(FILES) This file photo taken on March 29, 2022 shows a general view of the Barcelona's Enagas regasification plant, the oldest in continental Europe, located at the Muelle de la Energia in the port of Barcelona, during a visit for the international press. - Since the invasion of Ukraine, Spain has been calling for the revival of the MidCat gas pipeline project, intended to strengthen its gas interconnection with France and the EU's energy independence from Russia. An ambitious goal which comes up against several obstacles. (Photo by Josep LAGO / AFP) AFP - JOSEP LAGO

The new underwater pipeline was originally proposed to carry some natural gas as well, but will now only carry hydrogen in order to meet EU funding criteria, Costa said.

Some observers are sceptical about H2MED's chances of success, with Faig Abbasov, shipping programme director at Transport & Environment, a Brussels-based NGO, labelling it "window dressing" to reduce political tensions raised by MidCat.

"If you already have an overland pipeline why build an undersea pipeline?" Abbasov said. "Spain would be better off exporting by sea."

(Reuters)