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Green Hydrogen – Spanish Prime Minister Sánchez compares his policy of promoting green energy with that of Trump: “Green, baby, green”

hydrogen green baby green

Green Hydrogen – Spanish Prime Minister Sánchez compares his policy of promoting green energy with that of Trump: “Green, baby, green”

The Prime Minister confirms the objective of making Spain a “global epicentre” of the green hydrogen revolution: “We cannot continue to depend on foreign oil and gas. The time has come to break free”

Spain aims to become a world power in renewable energy , to be a leader in clean energy both in electrons (with a massive deployment of wind and photovoltaic energy ) and in molecules (with green hydrogen as a bulwark). And the Government’s plans and objectives include continuing to promote the expansion of green energy in the country.

Green, baby, green ” proclaimed the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, contrasting his policy of promoting renewable energy with the plans announced by the new President of the United States, Donald Trump, to relaunch the energy sector for the production and extraction of fossil fuels, which he summarised in his famous “ Drill, baby, drill ”.

Donald Trump has made his attack on renewable energy and the defence of fossil fuels one of the recurring themes in the eternal US election campaign and also after his victory and his return to the White House. A hostility that is currently rhetorical, pending the start of implementation with new regulations, and which is articulated through the threat of withdrawing green subsidies, limiting environmental protections and facilitating the extraction of oil and gas.

The new National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan (PNIEC) approved last year by the Spanish Government sets the goal of reaching 2030 with renewables producing 81% of all the country’s electricity and having launched the green hydrogen revolution in the country with electrolysers – which are used to produce the new green gas – with a power of 12,000 megawatts (MW) , three times more than in the previous version of the plan. “We are betting everything on green,” Sánchez concluded.

‘Global epicentre’ of hydrogen

Spain aims to become the world’s first major green hydrogen hub and be a key player in what is expected to be a new energy revolution to boost decarbonisation. Green hydrogen uses electricity from renewable sources for its generation, which will serve to replace part of the current use of natural gas in economic sectors (large industry and heavy transport, mainly) that find it difficult or impossible to directly use electricity in their processes.

He said on Wednesday during his speech at the inauguration of the ‘3rd Hydrogen Day’ of Enagás, the manager of the Spanish gas system,

We are growing more than anyone else and we are growing greener than anyone else,

“Spain is going to be one of the world’s epicentres of green hydrogen. The one with the most potential,”

the president stressed, confirming this commitment as the way to combine the decarbonisation of the Spanish economy and the reinforcement of reindustrialisation and the competitiveness of companies. Spain concentrates 20% of all the green hydrogen production projects announced so far worldwide.Spanish energy groups, industrial corporations and research centres have hundreds of projects linked to the future vein of renewable hydrogen , both for consumption in the country by local industry and for export to Europe through the large H2Med corridor in which Spain, France, Portugal and Germany are working.

Sánchez, said :

Spain is exporting energy. It is a complete paradigm shift,

“We cannot continue to depend on foreign oil and gas (…) The time has come to free ourselves.” 

Sánchez has highlighted the Spanish energy model as “the basis of the success of the economic moment that the country is experiencing” and as “the cornerstone of a successful model guided by the three Cs: growing, sharing and caring.” “Growing more than ever, sharing wealth and caring for the planet,” a scheme that the president has contrasted with “the obsolete model of fossil fuels.”

Million-dollar public aid

The Government’s commitment to promoting renewable hydrogen is being articulated with multi-million euro public aid programmes from the European funds of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan. To date, more than 1.5 billion euros have been executed from the PERTE strategic renewable energy project, and Sánchez has revealed that in the coming weeks he will announce the provisional resolution proposal for the call for the Hydrogen Valleys programme for 1.32 billion euros .

The President of the Government has also announced that another 400 million euros will be allocated to the projects that were left out of the European Hydrogen Bank auction , “despite having a positive evaluation by the European Commission”. Last year, the European Commission awarded 720 million euros to seven green hydrogen projects, in the first auction of the European Hydrogen Bank, among which were three Spanish ones (El Alamillo H2, Hysencia and Catalina).

“In the not-too-distant future, a large part of the planes, ships, and energy storage systems that will be used in the West and, particularly, in Europe, will run on green hydrogen. With hydrogen ‘made in Spain’,” Sánchez said, stressing that his government will work to ensure that “there is not a single opportunity in this field that is not taken advantage of” so that green hydrogen is a key formula for decarbonisation.

READ the latest news shaping the hydrogen market at Hydrogen Central

Green Hydrogen – Spanish Prime Minister Sánchez compares his policy of promoting green energy with that of Trump: “Green, baby, green”, source

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