Spain to disburse 900 mln euros for green hydrogen projects

MADRID-- Spain will allocate nearly 900 million euros ($968 million U.S. dollars) to fund 10 projects for the production, transport and development of renewable hydrogen, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced on Tuesday.

The objective of the projects, which are located throughout Spain, is to "create an authentic industrial ecosystem" to promote the creation of a value chain that is reindustrializing the country, Sanchez said at the inauguration of the 27th International Energy and Environment Fair in Madrid, which attracted 500 exhibitors globally.

Sanchez highlighted the burgeoning electrolyzer manufacturing industry, the production of renewable hydrogen and their use in the decarbonization of the manufacturing and transport sectors, as well as export "to other European countries and beyond."

He said that in the past five years, the renewable energy sector has helped create over 50,000 jobs in Spain as 130,000 people are now working in the sector and the workforce is set to surpass half a million by 2030.

He said Spain had the "extraordinary opportunity" to capitalize on renewable energy, with over 80 percent of Spain's electricity coming from these sources by 2030, helping end its reliance on fossil fuels, strengthening its energy autonomy and avoiding thousands of deaths caused by pollution.

Over half of Spain's electricity came from renewable sources in 2023, which helped reduce CO2 emissions from producing electricity by over 50 percent compared with 2018, according to the Spanish official data.