The Spanish government believes that the BarMar submarine connection to transport green hydrogen between Barcelona and Marseille could be operational within four or five years. Paris has already made it known, however, that it does not see the possibility of building this infrastructure before 2030.
During her visit to Paris yesterday, the Third Vice President and Minister for the Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, acknowledged that there are only “a few first sketches” of the pipeline for hydrogen, without yet a perfectly identified route, although there is the will to move quickly and specify, at the beginning of December, the main lines of the project, especially its execution time, cost and possible involvement of the European Union.
The compromise reached on Thursday in Brussels during the meeting between Pedro Sánchez, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the Portuguese prime minister, António Costa, was a surprise, even in diplomatic circles, which were not aware of what was cooking. . Until hours before, the sensation of total political blockade prevailed around the Midcat gas pipeline, given the categorical rejection of Paris to build that infrastructure. It was Spain that proposed the submarine link between Barcelona and Marseille, instead of the Italian city of Livorno, which was being considered for an alternative gas pipeline. Macron then accepted the bet.
The previous studies carried out by the Enagás company for the pipeline to Livorno may be useful for the BarMar project. Ribera warned, in any case, that the submarine pipeline is a work of great technical complexity and, being hydrogen, “it must be enormously safe”.
The term of four or five years is a rough estimate. In order for the infrastructure to be exploited, France will need to have the interconnection between Marseille and its hydrogen distribution structure to the interior of the country.
As an example of the dynamic that is to be imprinted on the project – and of the pressure on industrial actors and the French government itself – Ribera was in Paris to meet with his counterpart from the Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, and with the powerful minister of Economy, Finance and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty, Bruno Le Maire.
For Ribera, the tripartite agreement in Brussels is important to “consolidate a shared vision” on the energy strategy in Europe, which can no longer be decided in each country but rather a coordinated policy is imposed. For the Spanish vice president, the current crisis highlights the radical change in the European energy map. If gas and coal access points were a priority before, now clean energy producers will be. This makes the role of the southern countries much more relevant, “with sun and wind”, according to Ribera.
In addition to materializing the BarMar project as soon as possible, Spain and France will put the accelerator in specifying the electrical interconnections, with priority for the two slopes in the Pyrenees and the submarine line that is being built in the Bay of Biscay.
Vice President Ribera underscored Spain’s role in the current difficult situation as a valuable supplier of electricity to its neighbors, particularly Portugal, whose consumption depends between 20 and 35%, depending on the month, on the Spanish supply. France also imports megawatts from Spain and other neighbors to alleviate the serious maintenance difficulties experienced by its nuclear power plants and which raises fears of occasional supply cuts this winter.
