H2MED project
On 28 November 2023, the European Commission selected the H2med project to be included on the list of Projects of Common Interest (PCI). The European Council and Parliament will have 2 months to approve the PCI list in the beginning of 2024.
H2med project, a key milestone of the European Hydrogen Backbone,aims to help decarbonise Europe by 2050.
It will be able to transport up to 2 million tonnes of renewable hydrogen per annum (MTPA), which represents 10% of Europe’s projected consumption in 2030 according to the REPowerEU plan.
In October 2022, the Portuguese, Spanish and French leaders decided the development of energy interconnections in South-West Europe and create a green energy corridor linking the three countries to the rest of the European Union (EU) energy network. They also decided to create a hydrogen interconnection between Portugal and Spain (Celorico de Beira - Zamora/CelZa) and develop a maritime pipeline linking Spain and France (Barcelona-Marseille/BarMar) to transport renewable hydrogen from the Iberian Peninsula to Central Europe. The three governments ratified this commitment at the Euromed summit on 9 December 2022, with the support of the President of the European Commission, Ursula Von Der Leyen. From January 2023, Germany has decided to lend its support and join this hydrogen corridor initiative.
Enagás, GRTgaz, REN, and Teréga, the four gas transmission system operators in the relevant zone formed a consortium on 13 December 2022 to provide contributions to their respective governments on the development of H2med project and submit as a candidate for the Project of Common Interest (PCI) under the Regulation EU/2022/869 for Trans-European Energy Networks (TEN-E). Moreover, the transmission grid and system operators met in Berlin on 18 October 2023 to highlight H2med key role in achieving the objectives of the REPowerEU plan and welcome the German grid operator OGE to the consortium. During the event in Berlin, representatives of the European Union and the German, Spanish, Portuguese and French governments expressed their support for the development of the H2med pipeline. The European Commission has now approved the inclusion of H2med on the list of Projects of Common Interest.
The members of the consortium welcome the delegated act proposed by the European Commission which selects the BarMar and CelZa components of the H2med project. These two projects will be essential in building a hydrogen corridor from the Iberian Peninsula to Central and North-Western Europe, linking supply from producer countries to demand centers and interconnecting the main projects in this corridor. The consortium members recognize the relevance that a number of internal infrastructures in Portugal, Spain, France and Germany have also been selected for the PCI project list. These projects are key for the development of the entire H2med corridor.
Once submitted to the European Council and Parliament in the beginning of 2024, the approved PCI list will speed up the design and construction permit procedures, as well as raise the project’s profile with investors and the market. This milestone paves the way for the consortium’s H2med group members to participate in the next call for applications for European funding (2024 Energy CEF call) to support the study-related expenditure needed to initiate the investment decision scheduled for late 2025 and conduct commissioning and COD in 2030.
As of today, the consortium H2med is launching a website bringing together all the components and stages of the project. It can be viewed by following this link www.h2medproject.com.
