The meeting of the Production Vertical of the BH2C pools experiences and lessons learnt in starting up the first green hydrogen production plants in Spain.
The fourth meeting of the Production Vertical of the BH2C was held on Wednesday, 2 October, at the Tekniker facilities in Eibar. The meeting of the Vertical, led by Enagás Renovable and Petronor, brought together 30 people from 21 member organisations.
As well as reporting on the latest developments in the Vertical and the most relevant regulatory aspects for the sector, Txetxu Arzuaga, from Alba-Petronor, provided an update on production projects, focusing firstly on a 10MW electrolyser which is currently under construction and will be ready at the beginning of 2026. The hydrogen produced by this electrolyser will be used as feedstock for the synthetic fuels plant in the Port of Bilbao, which will also use CO2 from refinery emissions. Arzuaga then provided further news on the initiative for the development, construction and operation of a 100MW renewable hydrogen production plant in Muskiz (Bizkaia). The FID of this project, having been awarded a 160 million euro grant from the Government through the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO) within the framework of the IPCEI Hy2Use, is expected to be taken at the beginning of 2025. The production of this plant will be used to help decarbonise the large industrial consumers in the vicinity of the Port of Bilbao, along the left bank of the river and in the nearby geographical area.
Other speakers at the event included Jaime Rojas Blasco, from Hy5, who presented the project for the hydrogen and green methanol production plant in the port of El Musel (Gijón). According to the forecasts of the development company, construction work on the plant will begin in the third quarter of 2025, and the plant will come into commercial operation in 2027. In the first phase, the facility will have an electrolysis capacity of 50 megawatts (MW) to produce green hydrogen, which will power an e-methanol plant with an annual production capacity of 100,000 tonnes. The idea is to double this capacity to 100 MW.
Jose Manuel de Pablo, from Enagás Renovable, shared his experience in the pioneering GreenHysland Mallorca project, which aims to deploy a hydrogen (H2) ecosystem covering the entire value chain in Mallorca, making the island the first H2 hub in southwest Europe. As this project has already seen the commissioning of the first green hydrogen production plant in Spain, in the municipality of Lloseta (Mallorca), those present were able to share and discuss lessons learned from the plant's start-up process.
The session concluded with a presentation by Lucia Mendizabal on the capabilities of the Tekniker technology and research centre, and a subsequent visit to its laboratories.
