The support of the European Hydrogen Bank, key to the takeoff of EDP’s H2 plant in Aboño

2023-07-02 04:00:29

EDP ​​plans to have the first 100 megawatts (MW) of the Aboño green hydrogen (H2) production plant in operation by October 2025, the first phase of which will involve an investment of more than 244 million euros. At the moment, the company already has close to 40 million euros of European aid to start up the project in the current thermal power plant and hopes to obtain more support linked to the declaration of the project as of common European interest. However, the company believes that obtaining aid for investment is just as important as obtaining aid for the operation, and the new European Hydrogen Bank will play a key role there.

“The first auction of tax credits from the European Hydrogen Bank (endowed with 800 million) will be held next autumn and obtaining a remuneration will be key to the project,” explained José Manuel Pérez, director of Regulation of the EDP Hydrogen Unit, in a technical seminar organized by the University of Oviedo.

These aids from the European Hydrogen Bank will reduce production costs to reduce the price gap with respect to hydrogen that does not come from renewables (it is not green) and with respect to other energy sources.

Peréz explained that the initial 100 MW Aboño plant will produce “the equivalent to the capacity of half a ship of gas” per year, but that the idea is to gradually scale up and for EDP to reach 1.5 gigawatts in 2030.