Portuguese Green Energy Corridor Projects have a European seal of Common Interest

This Thursday, the Prime Minister António Costa qualified this European Commission seal as "excellent news". "It paves the way to European funding to transport green hydrogen connecting Portugal to Spain and Central Europe", the head of the Cabinet wrote on the social network X (former Twitter). 

One of the projects awarded the European seal is 'H2Med/CelZa', submitted by REN-Gasodutos and which represents an investment of 204 million euros. It will have around 242 km of pipelines, of which 162 km located in Portugal. 

This project, which will become one of the main green hydrogen corridors through the Mediterranean, corresponds to the announcement made in Brussels on 20 October 2022 by the French President Emmanuel Macron, the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa. The three leaders agreed on setting up a hydrogen interconnection between Portugal and Spain, linking Celorico da Beira (Portugal) to Zamora (Spain), and developing a sea pipeline linking Barcelona (Spain) to Marseille (France) as the most direct and efficient way of linking Portugal and Spain to Central Europe. 

On 9 December 2022, in Alicante, the same three leaders confirmed the launch of the corridor, which counted on the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen’s backing.

The estimated transport capacity of H2Med is two million tonnes of hydrogen per annum until 2030, representing 10% of hydrogen consumption in Europe. The estimated transport capacity between Portugal and Spain is 750 thousand tonnes of hydrogen per annum.

The second project bearing the European seal is the ‘Portuguese Hydrogen Backbone’, also submitted by REN-Gasodutos, which consists on building and adapting the gas grid in Portugal and accounts for investment of around 210 million euros. 

This project sets up important conditions for the production and integration of green hydrogen in the central inland area of Portugal and in Figueira da Foz, enabling the creation of new value chains in Portugal and the connection to the European Green Energy Corridor. It is the first stage in the creation of a wider Portuguese H2 infrastructure. 

The project includes the new hydrogen transport infrastructure from Figueira da Foz to Cantanhede, with around 50 km and three adapted hydrogen gas pipelines: Cantanhede-Mangualde (68 km of main trunk lines and 8 km of flow lines); Mangualde-Celorico da Beira (48 km of main trunk lines); and Celorico da Beira-Monforte (213 km of main trunk lines plus 4 km of flow lines).

Green hydrogen takes on a crucial role in Portugal’s energy and climate strategy, playing a fundamental role in the country’s re-industrialisation, creating jobs and meeting the Portuguese and European decarbonisation targets. 

The following electricity interconnections were also classified as Project of Common Interest: between Portugal and Spain (3rd Minho interconnection) and between Spain and France (Bay of Biscay), critical infrastructures to boost the interconnection of the electricity systems between the Iberian Peninsula and Central Europe.