A consortium led by Spanish energy firm Repsol has advanced plans for the installation of a 100MW electrolyser in southern Spain.

The €215mn ($212mn) electrolyser will be situated in the Escombreras Valley near Cartagena and will produce green hydrogen that will be used to displace natural gas in local industrial applications.

Repsol owns and operates a large refinery at Cartagena that will replace the grey hydrogen used in its operations with green hydrogen from the electrolyser. French utility Engie, which is also a partner in the electrolyser project, will use the hydrogen to create heat in its industrial processes. Meanwhile, renewable oxygen, produced by the electrolyser alongside hydrogen, will be used by Repsol and other industries in the Escombreras Valley in their processes.

“The production of this renewable hydrogen will lead to a reduction in the consumption of natural gas used by industry, which also contributes to achieving the objective set by the European Commission within the Repower EU strategy to reduce dependence on foreign energy supply,” says Repsol.

FID is expected next year, with construction following in 2024 and completion in 2025. 

IPCEI funding

The project has recently been selected as one of the European Commission’s Important Projects of Common European Interest, meaning it will receive some EU funding and can bypass state aid rules.

4GW – Spain’s 2030 green hydrogen target

The Commission last month approved state aid worth €5.2bn ($5.1bn) for a tranche of 35 hydrogen projects put forward by 13 EU member states. The IPCEI scheme is also expected to leverage a further €7bn ($6.9bn) of private sector investment.

Repsol is Spain’s largest producer and consumer of hydrogen. The Cartagena electrolyser will help achieve its target of reaching 552MW of green hydrogen capacity by 2025 and 1.9GW by 2030, almost 50pc of the Spanish government's target of 4GW.

The development is also part of ‘Shyrius’, a demonstration project for the renewable hydrogen value chain in the Murcia region formed by a local consortium formed of 13 partners.

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Author: Tom Young