(Copenhagen / Denmark) – The Danish investment company Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners is entering the large-scale production of green hydrogen and ammonia in Spain. The consortium includes the natural gas transmission system operator Enagás SA, the electricity and gas supplier Naturgy Energy Group SA, the fertilizer manufacturer Fertiberia SA and the Danish wind turbine manufacturer Vestas Wind Systems A/S.
As part of the project called “Catalina”, the companies in Aragon in northeastern Spain want to develop solar and wind turbines with an output of five gigawatts. An electrolyser with an output of two gigawatts will one day be able to produce green hydrogen with the yield. Once fully deployed, Catalina will produce enough green hydrogen to cover 30 percent of Spain's demand.
First phase with 500 megawatt electrolyzer
The first phase of the project is already at an advanced stage and is expected to be fully developed and approved in less than two years. Construction is scheduled to begin at the end of 2023. The project includes renewable energy systems with an initial output of 1,7 gigawatts as well as a 500 megawatt electrolyzer, which can reportedly produce over 40.000 tons of green hydrogen per year. Up to 5.000 jobs are expected to be created during the construction and installation of Catalina I.
The energy source will be transported via a pipeline to the port city of Valencia and will be used there in a newly built ammonia plant with an annual capacity of 200.000 tons. Fertiberia processes the green ammonia into fertilizer in the existing plants in Sagunto (Valencia).
The hydrogen produced will also be used to decarbonize other industrial processes and will partly be fed into the natural gas network. The consortium is applying for the grid connection in the Spanish municipality of Andorra (Teruel province).
The five corporations
“Spain, and Aragon in particular, offers good conditions” for the development of large-scale production of green hydrogen and green ammonia due to its excellent solar and wind resources, political support and proximity to demand centers, says Søren Toftgard, partner at CIP. Catalina is part of the Energy Transition Fund, which focuses on Power-to-X and other next-generation renewable technologies.
The fund manager invests primarily in renewable energy infrastructure and, according to its own information, manages eight funds with a volume of around 16 billion euros, which come from around 100 international institutional investors from Europe, Asia, Australia and North America as well as multilateral organizations. The company is already active in Aragon with the “Monegros” onshore wind farm (487,5 megawatts).
Enagás operates in Spain, the United States, Mexico, Chile, Peru, Albania, Greece and Italy. The company has, among other things, more than 12.000 kilometers of gas pipelines and three strategic storage facilities. Enagás works in Spain with more than 60 partners on 55 projects in the field of renewable gases and decarbonization, of which 34 are green hydrogen projects and 21 are biomethane projects.
Naturgy employs 9.300 people worldwide to produce, distribute and market energy and services. These supply around 20 million customers with gas and electricity in over 16 countries. Naturgy is currently developing an international portfolio of green hydrogen projects.
The fertilizer manufacturer Grupo Fertiberia has more than 1.500 employees and operates 13 industrial plants on the Iberian Peninsula and France. Vestas designs, manufactures, installs and maintains wind turbines around the world. The group has installed turbines with an output of 145 gigawatts in 85 countries and employs more than 29.000 people.
Photos
CIP's “Monegros” wind power fleet in Aragon: The portfolio consists of twelve closely spaced wind farms with a total of 129 turbines from GE Renewable Energy. The first systems went into operation in summer 2020. In March 2021, CIP sold a 49 percent stake to a fund managed by British asset manager Arjun Infrastructure Partners. © Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners
