Pedro Sánchez defends use of renewable hydrogen to achieve climate neutrality and boost economic recovery

Moncloa Palace, Madrid

The event also included the participation of the Executive Vice-President of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans, and the Fourth Vice-President of the Government and Minister for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge, Teresa Ribera, who closed off the workshop, as well as sector business owners and professionals.

In his speech, the President of the Government pointed to the importance of our country committing to renewable hydrogen as a driver of the ecological transition and economic reactivation with a high added value. "Spain has all the requirements to be a global powerhouse for clean energy", explained Pedro Sánchez, who considers that in the same way as we are leaders in technology and our own production of wind energy "we can be leaders in green hydrogen". According to the President of the Government, Spain is one of the European countries with the greatest potential for producing green hydrogen.

Green hydrogen: a key vector for achieving climate neutrality

The President of the Government undertook to work tenaciously on the Roadmap of Renewable Hydrogen that the Council of Ministers approved on 6 October and that forms part of the Spanish strategy to achieve a 100% renewable electricity system by the year 2050.

The targets established in this roadmap for the next decade include achieving the production of 4GW of installed power of electrolysis, having a fleet of at least 150 buses, 5,000 light and heavy vehicles and two lines of commercial trains powered by renewable hydrogen and to achieve 25% of consumption of industrial hydrogen of a renewable nature by 2030.

To achieve the targets set out in the Hydrogen Roadmap, a necessary investment up to 2030 is estimated of some 8.9 billion euros to be mobilised by the private sector with efficient support from the public sector. In addition, within the framework of the European Recovery Fund, more than 1.5 billion euros are due to be allocated to the development of renewable hydrogen.

A green economy with high added value

Spain has several projects underway that demonstrate the growing importance of renewable hydrogen for our energy fabric. These include the construction of the largest hydrogen production plant in Europe in Puertollano, the Hydrogen Supply Station that will reach Valencia Port by 2021 and the zero-emission fuel plant based on green hydrogen that will be built by Petronor in Bilbao.

According to the President of the Government, these projects are just the start. "Now is the time to harness our capacity to produce hydrogen at competitive prices, which will allow us to create an industrial value chain of national companies, boost the creation of jobs and of cutting-edge technology", remarked Pedro Sánchez.

Non official translation