Spain, the European Leader in Green Hydrogen

On July 2, the company H2 Energy opened the first Italian “green” hydrogen plant in the province of Cremona.

In recent years, Spain has broken the European record in the production of “green” hydrogen, one of the pillars of the energy transition. According to the latest Bloomberg report, “most countries of the European Union are lagging behind Spain that is ramping up investments in eco-friendly hydrogen production.”

Spain has invested more than $19.5 billion in the production of “green” hydrogen using renewable energy sources. According to Bloomberg analysts, “this is the most ambitious attempt in all of Europe to introduce state-of-the-art technologies to solve the most pressing energy problems.”

Currently, one of the five strategic projects related to hydrogen production belongs to Spain, which is second only to the United States in this sector. One of the most significant events of recent times was the opening of a special sea corridor between Spain and the Netherlands for the transportation of ecological ammonia produced from “green” hydrogen.

The rest of the European countries are far behind. France and Germany are even supposedly sabotaging part of the EU’s so-called Green Deal, under which production of pure hydrogen must reach 10 million tons by the year 2030. In this context, Bloomberg analysts referred to unspecified “acute political differences between European countries.”

“Green” hydrogen is produced by splitting water and using electrolysis technologies. Hydrogen is considered an ideal fuel with “zero” greenhouse gas emissions. Russia has launched a special program designed to dramatically increase the production of eco-friendly hydrogen in the Far East of the country.

Unlike France and Germany, Italy is very actively developing modern technologies for the production of pure hydrogen. On July 2, in Pizzigettone, Cremona, H2 Energy opened Italy’s first “green” hydrogen plant. “This is a modular machine that is pre-assembled on the line, tested, and then installed on site. The few competitors that offer similar electrolyzers do not provide technical maintenance, while we allow intervention within a few hours and inspection from the inside. This first one-megawatt version occupies the space of a standard 45ft container combined with a smaller 20ft container, but we already know how to intervene to make the next version smaller,” told Wired Claudio Mascialino, co-founder of an innovative SME.

The approval and ratification by the European Union of the Paris Agreement is aimed at achieving zero emissions by 2050. Additionally, in March, negotiators between the Council and the European Parliament reached an agreement on a new version of the Renewable Energy Directive called Red III, under which “by 2030, 42.5% of energy consumption in the EU should be supplied from renewable sources.”