Paul Rodden • Season: 2023 • Episode: 267
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Welcome to The Hydrogen Podcast!
In episode 267, The Dutch are looking to Mexico for hydrogen potential, and the Spanish h2 med corridor gets another step closer to becoming reality. I’ll go over these topics and give my thoughts on today’s hydrogen podcast.
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Paul Rodden
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Transcript:
The Dutch are looking to Mexico for hydrogen potential, and the Spanish h2 med corridor gets another step closer to becoming reality. I’ll go over these topics and give my thoughts on today’s hydrogen podcast.
So the big questions in the energy industry today are, how is hydrogen the primary driving force behind the evolution of energy? Where is capital being deployed for hydrogen projects globally? And where are the best investment opportunities for early adopters who recognize the importance of hydrogen? I will address the critical issues and give you the information you need to deploy capital. Those are the questions that will unlock the potential of hydrogen. And this podcast will give you the answers. My name is Paul Rodden, and welcome to the hydrogen podcast.
Before I begin, I want to take a moment to thank Chemours for their support in q3 and q4 of this year. Their sponsorship helped us grow the podcast and continue to provide quality analysis, and we really appreciate what they offer to the hydrogen community. With that said, we’re getting a jump on 2024. And we’d like to reach out to members of our audience that work in the hydrogen industry to pass our podcast on to their communications team for future sponsorship opportunities. Our focus is to continue to advocate for the hydrogen industry and we need your support to do so. All I ask is that you ask them to check out our media page on our website at www.thehydrogenpodcast.com/media. And if you’re a listener of the show, and would like to make a small contribution to help out, one of our fans recommended a service that will help out and I had William put a button at the top of our website called support the show. We really appreciate the support from everyone and hope you have a great end to 2023 Now on with the show.
In an article in reuters.com. Mexico president says Danish fund to invest $10 billion in Mexico to produce green hydrogen. A Danish fund will invest $10 billion in a development hub in southern Mexico to produce green hydrogen for ships and to replace hydrocarbon use. Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Friday, November 24, one of Lopez Obrador is key infrastructure projects is the development of an industrial corridor connecting the Pacific and Atlantic oceans and the Mexico’s poorer south. He says it’s a financial economic fund from Denmark, they’re going to invest in a development hub $10 billion, because they’re going to produce green hydrogen to replace hydrocarbons. This the President said in a press conference. In August, Lopez Obrador said that Danish asset manager Copenhagen infrastructure partners or CIP, was going to begin construction of a green hydrogen plant in the southern port of Salina, Cruz to supply ships with the fuel.
At that time, the President did not mention the size of the investment, and a spokesperson for CIP said on Friday that its plans for Mexico were known. In a quote from CIP, we can confirm that we are involved in a large scale green hydrogen project in the Oaxaca region in Mexico, further development will take place in collaboration with local authorities and partners. They also continue to say we will provide further updates as the project progresses. The CIP spokesperson said they did not know whether Lopez Obrador was talking about the same project on Friday, and declined to confirm the some he cited as its planned investment. Lopez Obrador, a strong proponent of hydrocarbons since taking office late 2018 said that new vessels around the world will use the green hydrogen obtained through wind and solar energy via electrolysis. He says, we are talking about the era of non pollution of everything being done to prevent climate change. Denmark’s embassy in Mexico did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the President’s comments.
Okay, so not many details surrounding this news of a cross country hydrogen development in southern Mexico. It does sound like the Dutch are investing rather heavily in the region, but only they know if the $10 billion figure is correct. The reason I mentioned this news is that this region, as stated in the article is one of the poorer regions around the world, but it’s one with a rich history. It also showcases the opportunity for struggling economies to transition into an energy rich region by embracing hydrogen. Unlike northern Mexico, which hosts the bulk of the Chihuahuan Desert. The southern portion of the country has plenty of water and renewable potential for hydrogen development, and it would appear that CIP has noticed this opportunity as well. I look forward to seeing how this project unfolds and hopefully get more information in the near future.
Next in a press release on November 28, H2med and the Spanish hydrogen backbone included in To list of projects of common interest of the European Commission, the European Commission has adopted the delegated act on projects of common interest or PCI, which includes the h2 med corridor, the first axis of the associated Spanish hydrogen backbone network and two underground hydrogen storage facilities. their inclusion in the list of PCI ‘s, which will be submitted to the council and the European Parliament for approval in early 2024 represents an important step forward and the promotion of these projects. The H2med comprises a connection between Celourico da Beira in Portugal and Zamora and a maritime connection between Barcelona and Marseille. With a planned combined investment of around 2.5 billion euros, CelZa will have a maximum capacity of 0.75 million tonnes of renewable hydrogen, a length of 248 kilometres and a 24.6 MW compressor station in Zamora, and BarMar will have a maximum capacity of two million tonnes, a length of 455 kilometres and a 140 MW compressor station in Barcelona.
H2Med was presented in Alicante at the Euromed summit on 9 December 2022 by the governments of Portugal, Spain and France, with the support of the President of the European Commission, Ursula Von Der Leyen, and in January 2023 the support of Germany was added. Following this initial impulse, the TSOs of Portugal, Spain, France and Germany presented the project at an event in Berlin on 18 October, ratifying the support of the governments of these four countries and that of the European Commission, as well as that of the industry and the main players of the sector in Germany. The first sections of the Spanish Hydrogen Backbone included as a PCI are the Vía de la Plata Axis with its connection to the Puertollano Hydrogen Valley -which add up to a planned length of approximately 1,250 km-, and the Axis that includes the Cantabrian Coast, Ebro Valley and Levante Axes -about 1,500 km in total-, as well as two underground hydrogen storage facilities in Cantabria and the Basque Country, located in new salt cavities, with a planned capacity of 335 and 240 GWh, respectively. The Spanish Hydrogen Backbone Network projects, together with the storage facilities identified as necessary for its correct operation, involves an investment of around 4.6 billion euros.
Enagás is making progress in analysing the results after successfully completing the first phase of the non-binding Call For Interest process for the first axes of the Spanish Hydrogen Backbone on 17 November. With the data provided by the more than 200 companies – producers, consumers, marketers and other agents – that have submitted more than 600 projects, the company will be able to gauge the interest of the main players in the energy sector in the necessary development of renewable hydrogen transport infrastructures, as well as ammonia, oxygen and CO2. The information provided in this Call for Interest will also make it possible to adjust the routes and to detect whether it is necessary to incorporate sections that were not initially included in the first axes presented.
Enagás will announce the results of the Call for Interest at the 2nd Hydrogen Day, to be held on 31 January 2024. The inclusion of the H2Med corridor, the Spanish Hydrogen Backbone and the two underground hydrogen storage facilities in the PCI list -once it passes through the European Parliament and Council- will help to make progress in fulfilling the RePowerEU Plan to achieve the European and Spanish goals of energy independence, industrial competitiveness and decarbonization. Okay, so Spain and the h2 med corridor getting some very strong support from surrounding countries as well as the EU. I recently spoke regarding Germany in their push to become the nexus of hydrogen in Europe. Now it sounds like Spain could be making a similar push. With a total of 4.6 billion euros. This corridor could be one of the largest projects to kick off further development of the broader hydrogen backbone plan for Europe.
But if last week has told us anything with the German funds drying up, finding the capital for this corridor, it might be difficult. Now private capital is a very strong possibility to cover the bulk of the costs. But for that to happen, the EU will need to work with private industry to pave the way instead of creating more roadblocks and regulatory hurdles that could impede future return potential. All right, that’s it for me everyone.
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Hey, this is Paul. I hope you liked this podcast. If you did and want to hear more, I’d appreciate it if you would either subscribe to this channel on YouTube, or connect with your favorite platform through my website at www.thehydrogenpodcast.com. Thanks for listening. I very much appreciate it. Have a great day.
