The port of Tarragona hosted the celebration of the first Hydrogen Week from November 9 to 17. The chosen scenario is not trivial: the province of Tarragona, led by its powerful petrochemical industry, brings together a good part of the research projects and new infrastructures around this energy vector. It is also for this same reason that the Tarragona port is the headquarters of the Vall de l’Hydrogen of Catalonia, which encompasses companies, research centers, associations and public administrations linked to this energy vector.
Hydrogen Week has been a showcase for the growing number of projects underway. The most notable is the construction by Repsol in Tarragona of the largest electrolyzer in Spain, with the capacity to produce up to one gigawatt of green hydrogen (this is how hydrogen produced with electricity from renewable sources is known). “Catalonia has started late in the hydrogen race, but there are already many very interesting projects,” says Albert Tarancón, Icrea researcher at the Energy Research Institute of Catalonia (IREC). The expert adds that “the entry of Next Generation funds has been key to promoting all these initiatives.”
Catalonia starts from a certain position of advantage: “The transition towards green hydrogen will be easier because hydrogen is already widely used by industry, although produced from natural gas and not renewable electricity. Furthermore, natural gas – and hydrogen is still a gas – is widely used throughout the territory and we have an important gas infrastructure,” highlights Isaac Justicia, director of the Vall de l’Hidrogen technical office.
However, there is a big but: the deficit of solar and wind farms for the generation of electricity from renewable sources, necessary to produce green hydrogen. “The key to everything is having enough renewable energy to supply electricity demand and, in addition, there being a surplus for the generation of green hydrogen,” warns Tarancón.
Beyond this problem, Míriam Díaz de los Bernardos, director of the Xarxa H2CAT, identifies four major challenges. The first is to be able to produce green hydrogen at competitive prices compared to gas and other alternatives. This is the main reason why only 0.1% of the hydrogen consumed in the world in 2022 was generated with electricity from renewable sources. The second challenge is the production of hydrogen from waste, both agricultural, municipal or industrial. The third is the storage and transportation of the hydrogen produced. Finally, the fourth great challenge is the use of hydrogen in the field of mobility, especially in transportation that is difficult to electrify (such as airplanes or maritime vessels). The Xarxa H2CAT is coordinated by the Eurecat technology center and brings together 33 research groups and more than 200 specialized researchers.
María Dolors Núñez, leader of the Analysis and Detection of Technological Opportunities team at Acció, advances that “the companies linked to the hydrogen ecosystem in Catalonia have increased considerably, and in different segments.” According to Acció, these were 140 in 2022. Catalonia is not alone in this commitment: “The European Union is the region of the world where, at the moment, the most investments in hydrogen are being carried out and also the one that is patenting the most in the entire technological chain,” says Núñez.
