2023-07-24 19:52:45
The National Commission for Markets and Competition (CNMC) warns of possible “overinversions” in the hydrogen project Bar Mar who aspires to unite spain y France in the absence of certainty about its potential demand. This is stated by the European regulator (ACER) in an analysis of the 358 investments in gas infrastructure that are expected to be carried out in the next decade in Europe. “The CNMC is concerned about possible overinvestments, since we do not know (nor are we certain) the expected demand that will supply the projects,” says the organization that directs Cani Fernández in his comments.
The hydroduct was announced by the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, last December in Alicante, after a summit with the French President, Emmanuel Macronand the portuguese Prime Minister, Antonio Costa, in which also participated the Chairwoman of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
This corridor, which is part of a large hydrogen network linking the Iberian Peninsula, plans to transport some 2 million tons of green hydrogen from 2030, which would mean 10% of the continent’s total demand on that date, according to the gas system operator, Enagas.
The draft of the National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan (PNIEC), which establishes the energy roadmap until 2030, does not include no estimate on production of this infrastructure for that date. What it does include is the installation of some 11 gigawatts (GW) of electrolysers (machines to produce hydrogen) that could produce up to 1.7 million tons in the best of scenarios, of which the annual internal consumption about 500,000 tons would be eaten. To these 1.2 million surpluses could be added 750,000 tons planned by Portugal for export through Spain, which would increase the sales capacity abroad to 1.9 million tons.
In relation to the demand, the focus of the project is Germanywith a consumption forecast of between 2.7 and 3.3 million tonsaccording to its national hydrogen strategy, prepared in 2020, and which by the end of 2030, could amount to about 3.7 million tonsaccording to the information sent by Germany to the European Comission in the context of the selection of Projects of Common Interest (PCIs). Of this consumption, 0.9 million correspond to internal production and 2.6 million would correspond to imports.
old debate
The ghost of overinvestment in gas infrastructures It is not new. The Barmar is inspired by the MidCat, the unborn gas pipeline that Spain and France planned in the 2000s but that the Spanish and French regulators stopped due to the low commercial interest and the high cost of the infrastructure.
And it is the same discussion that has called into question for years the enormous amount of liquefied natural gas (LNG) plants that there is in Spain, with a third of the total import capacity of LNG from Europe but with a very low utilization. The war in Ukraine with the invasion led by Russia, however, proved its usefulness in terms of energy security.
All of that LNG infrastructure was built on the basis of some demand forecasts from the early 2000s, that pointed to a growing consumption of natural gas what never occurredaccording to a study commissioned by the European Climate FoundationProfessor of the Department of Economics and Business at Pompeu Fabra University, Albert Banal Tinand professor of energy economics at the IFP School in Paris, Olivier Massol, who conclude that the result represented an increase in the consumer fees.
In this sense, the authors of the study warn that, looking to the future, the “uncertainty” about the role of green hydrogen and biomethane should serve the regulators to ‘take an approach’ of no regret later’, for example, prioritizing investment in infrastructure for renewable gas of the industrial clusters”.
add throws it out
It agrees with the philosophy of the CNMC and the cited study summera party that aspires to the alliance with him PSOE to reissue the coalition government. “H2Med seems to us a stranded investment (…) We do not create supply without knowing if we will have demand because otherwise we will continue making funerary monuments to the concessional capitalism of which this country has many signs”, affirmed the Sumar candidate and president of the Renewable Foundation, Fernando Ferrando, last wednesday during a pre-election debate organized by El Periódico de la Energía.
“We understand that it is smarter transport electricity than to transport hydrogen”, He added, before stating that if Spain is capable of generating cheap energy, it should be used to “regreen and reindustrialize the economy.”
The Popular Party did not include the hydroduct and its representative in its electoral program William Mariscal, present in the aforementioned energy debate, preferred to focus on develop a hydrogen law that “facilitates its development, operation and transport” and insisted that it is an “opportunity to reindustrialize Spain and attract investment”, beyond using it to sell energy abroad, although in his case he referred to the transport of hydrogen through boats –for example, in the form of ammonia– and not tubes.
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