Enagás and Junta de Extremadura to promote the trunk network of renewable hydrogen infrastructures
Extremadura has set a goal for 2030 to produce 20 percent of the green hydrogen generated in Spain, with a development of 3 gigawatts of electrolysis out of a total of 16, as announced on Tuesday by the president of the Junta de Extremadura, Guillermo Fernandez Vara.
In this way, the president has said, Extremadura would position itself as the main producer of this energy source, as is already the case with photovoltaics, whose objective of 20 percent of the production compared to the national total has already been “widely” overcome.
That objective, he added, would translate into some 10,000 million euros of investment, 2,500 direct jobs, 20,000 jobs during construction and, ultimately, “go one step further” in what the process is assuming for Extremadura of the ecological transition and “this green revolution” in which our region appears as “one of the main actors for Spain and for the European Union”.
Fernández Vara made these statements after signing, together with the CEO of Enagás, Arturo Gonzalo Aizpiri, a collaboration protocol for the promotion and development of transport and storage infrastructures for renewable hydrogen and its derivatives in Extremadura.
The manager of Enagás has made reference to the fact that, on the one hand, the need to accelerate the decarbonisation process, and, on the other, the security problems in the supply of energy caused by the war in Ukraine, have led to the objectives of deployment of renewable gas infrastructures and, specifically, green hydrogen, have had to be brought forward almost a decade and have become a priority for the continent.
In addition, Gonzalo Aizpiri has indicated that one of the two main axes of the national hydrogen network runs partly through Extremadura, a region that, he has assured, meets “extraordinary conditions” to play a leading role in green hydrogen at a national level. European.
Act signs agreement between the President of the Junta de Extremadura, Guillermo Fernández Vara, and the CEO of Enagás, Arturo Gonzalo
If Spain has the conditions to become the “great HUB” of green hydrogen in Europe, Extremadura has the conditions to be the “great HUB of hydrogen” within our country, he stressed.
According to the data provided by the CEO, a total of 420 km of hydrogen pipelines (pipes for hydrogen) that practically “replicate” the current main gas network, run through Extremadura, with the main node in Almendralejo and the addition of a branch to Puertollano, as it is an important industrial center. In total, he has summarized, 13.8 percent of the total national green hydrogen network would be within Extremadura.
The president of the Junta de Extremadura has also advanced that work is already underway with Enagás and with the EOI (School of Industrial Organization) to develop a training program in renewable gases throughout this year, and that it would be taught in Extremadura, to begin to have professionals when they are required.
Fernández Vara has specified that the electrical planning “for our land” by the State has been “very good”, which explains why many industries have
Extremadura has been chosen to settle, and he has hoped that the same thing will happen with “the new adventure” that hydrogen implies, something that could place the region in a competitive scenario that “five years” ago nobody could have imagined.
The person in charge of Enagás, on the other hand, has highlighted the importance of the decree law approved a week ago by the Governing Council of the Junta de Extremadura, which declares the production of green hydrogen in the region to be of general interest.
In this sense, he has been convinced that this example will be followed by other territories and has underlined the fact that Extremadura was the first autonomous community with which the entity has been able to sign a framework agreement of these characteristics.
If in Spain public-private collaboration formulas such as the one that has been presented today can be reached, our country can aspire to become the “main producer of green hydrogen in Europe”, it has settled.
