Portugal, Spain and France agree on a Green Energy Corridor

Portugal, Spain and France agreed on the creation of a Green Energy Corridor, therefore overcoming one of the oldest blockages around the subject of interconnecting the Iberian Peninsula with the rest of Europe.

When entering the European Council, and following a meeting with the President of the Spanish Government Pedro Sánchez and the President of France Emmanuel Macron, the Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa stated:

"Today we reached an agreement to definitively overcome the old project called MidCat and develop and develop a new project we called the Green Energy Corridor, which will allow us to complement the interconnections between Portugal and Spain, between Celorico da Beira and Zamora, as well as connecting Spain with the rest of Europe, connecting Barcelona and Marseille by sea".

According to the Prime Minister, the agreement reached is a good contribution by the three countries "for the whole of Europe" and for "the spirit of joint solidarity that we all need to face this [energy] crisis".

"This is good news at a time of energy crisis", the Prime Minister noted.

António Costa said that "we still need to adjust the details from a technical perspective" when it comes to European funding, namely through what the European Commission can allocate to the European interconnections and also to define with the Commission the financing of this new connection through the European interconnection facility".

Gas pipeline will be for green hydrogen and other renewable gases

António Costa said that this gas pipeline will be "for green hydrogen" or other renewable gases, even if temporarily it can be used "to transport natural gas up to a certain proportion" adding that "the energy interconnections will also be strengthened".

He also noted that the three countries will meet again in Alicante, Spain, on 9 December, before the meeting already scheduled for the Summit of the EU Southern Countries so that there is time for the details on this connection to be adjusted from a technical perspective. António Costa noted the diplomatic, technical and political work undertaken in the last year to reach this agreement.

Speeding up the energy transition

The Prime Minister highlighted two "absolutely fundamental" points of the new agreement:

"The change of the energy context in Europe and the understanding that we have to diversify the energy supply routes and sources; as well as the opportunities that existed with regard to natural gas", since today we have "the technology that allows us to invest in green hydrogen and other renewable gases", thereby contributing "to the joint effort we all need to make to speed up the energy transition".

As such, as he states, this solution "instead of insisting on the environmental difficulties in the Pyrenees, found a sea alternative and, of the two possible, the best one was found and the one that allows us to connect to the backbone of the European green hydrogen network".

Added value to Portugal

In what concerns Portugal, the Prime Minister said that the 162-km-connection between Celorico da Beira and Vale do Prado was already envisaged for green hydrogen, as "it does not make sense to start a project that isn’t heading this way".

António Costa noted, however, that the transport of natural gas using this pipeline must be proportional to ensure Europe’s energy security "without losing our focus: to speed up the energy transition to green energy".

For the Prime Minister, the fact that this pipeline will reach the Spanish border is already of huge added value to Portugal, as it allows us to increase "our capacity of being connected with the market, where it’s not just 10 million people", rather "60 million in the Iberian Peninsula as a whole".

Joint energy storage

António Costa also said that alongside this pipeline, a project to store energy with Spain is being developed, which is "a major challenge in the energy transition".

A project which, he adds, helps to enhance the lithium resources, in the Iberian Peninsula, to build "batters that can help store energy on a large scale to respond to crises such as these we are experiencing and the drought where we, together, need to keep up our capacity for hydroelectric generation".