The leaders of Spain, France and Portugal have met in Alicante with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to advance plans for an underwater pipeline to carry green hydrogen between Spain and France. 

It will cost about €2.5 billion ($2.6 billion), Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said, adding he hoped the European Union would partly fund the project.

The H2MED pipeline between Barcelona and Marseille will have a capacity of 2 million tonnes a year and be ready by the end of the decade, Sanchez said at a summit of Mediterranean EU leaders in the southeastern Spanish port city of Alicante.

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French President Emmanuel Macron said the pipeline could also be used to send hydrogen produced in France from nuclear energy – so-called red hydrogen – in the opposite direction.

The decision to pursue the project comes as an energy crisis caused by the conflict in Ukraine has accelerated European plans to bolster renewable energy as an alternative to Russian gas.
 

'Hydrogen, a game changer for Europe'

The corridor will make Iberia "a major energy hub" and form part of a "European hydrogen backbone" allowing the bloc to pump hydrogen across the continent, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said, as it seeks to produce 10 million tonnes of clean hydrogen a year and import a further 10 million tonnes by 2030.

"Hydrogen is a game changer for Europe," Von der Leyen said. "We want to make hydrogen a central part of our energy system in the transition to climate neutrality."

Green hydrogen is made from electrolyzers powered by renewable energy. 

According to a document provided by Spain, an additional pipeline connecting Spain and Portugal will cost €350 million ($369 million).

Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa said the Iberian peninsula's abundance of sunshine and wind used for renewable energy would make the production of hydrogen "particularly competitive."

'Window dressing' to reduce political tensions

Sanchez said France, Spain and Portugal would apply for EU funds to pay for up to 50 percent of H2MED's cost. The other half would be funded by the three countries' national grids.

The project also aims to attract private investment, Spanish government sources added.

The submarine pipeline was proposed in October as a substitute for the so-called MidCat gas pipeline project across the Pyrenees, which had been championed by Spain and Portugal who said it could relieve immediate pressure on gas supplies.

Paris opposed the plan, arguing that two existing pipelines across the Pyrenees which divide the Iberian Peninsula from France were already under-utilized.

The new underwater pipeline was originally proposed to carry some natural gas as well, but will now only carry hydrogen in order to meet EU funding criteria, Costa said.

Some observers are skeptical about H2MED's chances of success, with Faig Abbasov, shipping programme director at Transport & Environment, a Brussels-based NGO, labeling it "window dressing" to reduce political tensions raised by MidCat.

"If you already have an overland pipeline why build an undersea pipeline?" Abbasov said. "Spain would be better off exporting by sea."