A delegation from the Netherlands led by its King William I has disembarked this Tuesday in the framework of the 375th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the Kingdoms of the Netherlands and Spain.
The main objective of the visit in which a large selection of businessmen have participated has been to promote the commitment of both countries to green hydrogen, “central piece in the decarbonization puzzle”, as defined by the third vice president and minister for the Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, during the appearance before the media that she has starred with her counterpart, Rob Jetten, Dutch Minister for Climate and Energy Policy.
Both politicians have highlighted the leading role of both countries in this energy vector. Spain and the Netherlands are the two countries of the European Union that have the largest number of already tangible projects in green hydrogen. “There is no time to lose. Spain is in a momentum (ideal growth situation) and we want to take advantage of it”, Jetten assured before an ecstatic look from the Spanish minister.
The statements by both leaders came after an intense day of work between business delegations from both countries to explore ways to promote both the development of hydrogen production in Spain and the strategies for transporting it to the port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands from where it is will distribute to the large industries in Central Europe.
King Guillermo I himself has been together with King Felipe VI visiting the facilities of the largest green hydrogen plant in Europe located in Puertollano (Ciudad Real) owned by Iberdrola. The president of the energy company, Ignacio Sánchez Galán, has acted as host of the visit.
Galán explained that “the current Puertollano facilities are in the first phase and in the future we will multiply the capacity of the plant by 10. In addition, a few days ago, we also signed a contract to sell ammonia that we will produce in Huelva more than 100,000 tons per year. We have planned investments in this sector of more than 3,000 million euros, of which more than half will come to Spain”.
Among the contracts signed are signed during this meeting with the companies ACE Terminal and Hynetwork Service to transport green hydrogen transformed into green ammonia (to facilitate its transport by ship) to the import facilities of ACE Terminal in the Port of Rotterdam, to handle and store, and convert the ammonia into green hydrogen, for final use in industry, or for direct use in shipping and other industries in North West Europe.
Transportation and distribution will take place via the Dutch national hydrogen network of Gasunie’s subsidiary Hynetwork Services in the European market to customers in the chemical, steel, refining and fertilizer industries. These entities are established in clusters such as those in Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Zeeland and Chemelot in the Netherlands and North-West Europe.
“Through import logistics hubs such as the Port of Rotterdam and Gasunie subsidiary Hynetwork Services’ national hydrogen grid to bring green hydrogen to European industrial users, the Netherlands is positioning itself to become a the gateway to north-western Europe with hydrogen”, explained Helmie Botter, manager of Hydrogen Business Development at Gasunie.
Another major announcement starring Cepsa is planned for this Wednesday. Cepsa’s CEO, Maarten Wetselaar, receives King William I and King Philip IV together with Teresa Ribera and Rob Jetten at the company’s facilities in the Hydrogen Valley in Algeciras.
As Teresa Ribera explained this Tuesday, this commitment to the export of green hydrogen by ship is complementary to the deployment of the connection with France that will be carried out when the infrastructure of the H2Med hydrogen pipeline is completed, scheduled for 2030.
“The export capacity via ship is less than what can be distributed in the future by tube, but exports can be done via ship as soon as the green hydrogen needs of Spanish companies are covered without waiting for the deployment of the great infrastructure that H2Med represents”, he assured.
In this way, Spain deploys a diversification strategy that has already been tested with satisfaction in the last energy crisis. In this case, to ensure a way out for the production of green hydrogen and not depend, as historically, on France having the only key to the energy connections of the Iberian Peninsula with the European continent.
