Moncloa leaves the door open for the H2MED corridor to include nuclear-produced hydrogen, as France wants

Spain will try to make it only work with green hydrogen but the project that they will present in Brussels includes both options

ALICANTE, 9 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The project to build the H2MED corridor that connects Portugal, Spain and France and that the countries must present to the European Commission before December 15 includes the term "renewable hydrogen", which leaves the door open for it to transport hydrogen produced with nuclear energy.

This possibility works in favor of the interests of France, which has an important network of nuclear power plants, and against those of Spain, which will try to finally only use "green" hydrogen, that is, produced with clean energy.

According to Moncloa sources, the text that will be transferred to Brussels speaks of "renewable hydrogen", a concept that today includes the so-called "pink hydrogen", which is generated with nuclear energy. The aforementioned sources specify that it is not yet definitive whether or not it will be able to circulate through the H2MED and it is a discussion that will take place throughout the coming year.

In addition, they maintain that Spain will try to ensure that this corridor finally works only with "green hydrogen", that is to say that it has been produced with clean energies such as solar or wind, in which Spain is dominant, and leaves out nuclear, the type of energy that predominates in the 'mix' of France.

In fact, this summer the European Parliament voted in favor of keeping both gas and nuclear within the energies classified as renewable. In Moncloa they underline that throughout the next year they will try to make their position prevail.

This Friday the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez and his French and Portuguese counterparts, Emmanuel Macron and Antonio Costa, respectively, met at the H2MED summit in Alicante to stage the launch of the hydrogen corridor, which in total will cost 2,850 million euros and will be ready in 2030.

Moncloa has already indicated that the intention is for the European Union to finance 50% of this project and for this it was necessary that the pipeline only transport hydrogen and leave out gas, which at first was also going to be transported through this infrastructure.

After today's meeting -in which the president of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen and the European Council, Charles Michel also participated- Moncloa does not take it for granted that the EU will provide maximum funding, but they trust it to be so. They think that it is a project that interests them a lot and that they are going to look at it "with affection", as they say.

There are still many issues that are in the air, for example the possibility that it can be financed in part with private funds, although according to what they indicate, the legislation that establishes this issue has yet to be developed.

On the other hand, regarding the section that connects Portugal with the province of Zamora, from Moncloa they specify that a new pipeline will be built that will only serve to transport hydrogen and not gas. However, they do not rule out that if in 2030, when it is scheduled to come into operation, there are gas needs, a compressor can be "inserted" so that it can also move gas.

On the other hand, during the afternoon Sánchez will hold bilateral meetings with some European leaders. Before the second session of the IX Euro-Mediterranean Med9 Summit, the President of the Spanish Government will meet at 6:00 p.m. with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, to discuss issues of mutual interest. As specified from the Élysée, they will review bilateral relations and discuss some energy projects for 2023.

Subsequently, Sánchez will hold another bilateral meeting, this time with the President of Slovenia, Borut Pahor. At first, it was planned that he would meet the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, in what was going to be their first meeting -despite the fact that both already met last month at the G-20 summit in Indonesia- . However, finally Meloni has canceled her presence at the summit because of the flu.