(Cádiz, Puertollano, Bilbao / Spain) – Spanish energy companies are heading to the green hydrogen markets in Central Europe. Both Iberdrola SA and Cepsa signed agreements to ensure sales of the energy source produced in southern Spain at the port of Rotterdam. And the port of Bilbao in northern Spain cooperates with Amsterdam. Investments amounting to several billion euros are planned.
Iberdrola: Ammonia to Rotterdam
Iberdrola wants to produce and ship green ammonia. A “cracker” will then convert the chemical back into green hydrogen in Rotterdam. An import terminal is currently being developed on the Maasvlakte in the Dutch port - a strategically important location as it offers direct access to the North Sea and also a connection to both Rotterdam's industry and the pipeline network to northwest Europe.
Iberdrola agrees with industrial partners to ship ammonia to Rotterdam: Ulco Vermeulen (Gasunie), Cees van Gent (HES International), Jorge Palomar Herrero (Iberdrola), Helmie Botter (Hynetwork Services) & Walter Moone (Vopak). Background: Dutch Minister of Energy and Climate Rob Jetten, Ignacia Galán (CEO Iberdrola) and King Willem-Alexander © Gasunie
The energy company signed an agreement with ACE Terminal. The Dutch gas network operator Gasunie, the marketer and processor of mineral oil and bulk goods HES International BV and the tank farm operator Vopak NV are also involved in the joint venture. The ACE terminal is scheduled to be operational in 2026.
In order to ensure onward transport and distribution, Iberdrola has also concluded a contract with the Gasunie subsidiary Hynetwork Services. This is how customers in the chemical, steel, refinery and fertilizer industries can be reached. Hynetwork Services is building a national hydrogen network in the Netherlands in several phases by 2030. Some of it uses existing infrastructure and some of it is adding new infrastructure. Industrial locations are connected to each other, to other countries as well as to hydrogen storage and import locations.
Investments of three billion euros
Iberdrola had already spoken at the World Economic Forum in Davos a year ago Capital expenditure announced an amount of three billion euros in hydrogen projects. For example, production in Puertollano in the province of Ciudad Real (Castile-La Mancha) can be multiplied.
The signing of the agreement between Iberdrola and the Port of Rotterdam took place in the presence of the Dutch King Willem-Alexander, who is greeted here by Iberdrola boss Ignacio Galán at the Puertollano factory. © Iberdrola SA
The system currently consists of a 20 megawatt electrolyser, a photovoltaic power plant with an installed capacity of 100 megawatts and a lithium-ion storage unit with a capacity of 20 megawatt hours. With an investment of 150 million euros, it will be possible to produce up to 3.000 tons of green hydrogen per year.
Iberdrola also announced in April that it wanted to build a large center for the production of green hydrogen at the Palos de la Frontera chemical site in the Andalusian province of Huelva. Initially, an output of 200 megawatts with a production capacity of 23.000 tons per year is planned. Investments there amount to 450 million euros.
A 500 megawatt electrolyser with a production capacity of 370 tons will then be installed for a further 39.100 million euros. In order to guarantee the supply of electricity from renewable energies for green hydrogen certification, Iberdrola wants to use the output of its renewable energy power plants in Andalusia with an installed capacity of almost 1.000 megawatts. The port of Huelva will become a “hub” and a “gateway to Europe”.
Cepsa: Tanker from Yara
The port of Algeciras serves as a starting point for the Spanish oil company and gas station operator Compañía Española de Petróleos (Cepsa). There, in the south of the Andalusian province of Cádiz on the Strait of Gibraltar, Cepsa also wants to ship green hydrogen and its derivatives to Rotterdam.
In the presence of the monarchs of Spain and the Netherlands (center), Cepsa signed cooperation agreements with Yara Clean Ammonia and with Gasunie. © Cepsa / Casa de SM el Rey
One of the contractual partners is Yara Clean Ammonia (YCA), a subsidiary of the Norwegian Yara International ASA. The company has, among other things, tankers and an ammonia and fertilizer factory in Sluiskil, the Netherlands, on the Gent-Terneuzen Canal, which flows into the North Sea and connects European inland rivers and railway lines across Europe. Just last week, YCA and Bunker Holding Group signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly accelerate the development of the market for clean ammonia as a marine fuel.
Green hydrogen corridor between northern and southern Europe: Cepsa wants to ship green ammonia (NH3) from its energy parks in Andalusia to the ACE terminals in Rotterdam. From there, the ammonia can be converted back into hydrogen and distributed via pipeline. © Cepsa
Cepsa, partly owned by the United Arab Emirates' sovereign wealth fund Mubadala, cannot ignore the planned ACE import facilities in the port of Rotterdam. The company is also collaborating with Hynetwork Services to connect to other European industrial clusters in Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium via the Gasunie pipelines, just like Iberdrola.
In addition, in May Cepsa announced a cooperation agreement with GETEC for the supply of green hydrogen and its derivatives, which GETEC will distribute to industrial customers in various European countries. The company provides heating, cooling and electrical services to the chemical, automotive, food, pharmaceutical, polymer and paper industries in Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Italy.
Investments in Andalusia
In its Andalusian “Green Hydrogen Valley” in San Roque on the Bay of Gibraltar, Cepsa says it is investing three billion euros in a project with a capacity of two gigawatts to produce 300.000 tons of green hydrogen. The plan also includes one billion euros to build an ammonia production facility with an annual capacity of up to 750.000 tons. 3.300 direct and indirect jobs would be created.
Ammonia: production and use. © Cepsa
In December, according to the Spanish newspaper Expansión, Cepsa even announced investments worth five billion euros to produce hydrogen in Andalusia, dwarfing other projects announced by rivals Iberdrola and Repsol. Corporations such as Acciona, BP, Enagás, Totalen and Enagás are also investing in Andalusia for similar projects.
Cepsa is currently developing the basic technologies (basic engineering) for the project and is working on the necessary permits. Production is scheduled to start in the Palos de la Frontera Energy Park (Huelva) in 2026 and in San Roque (Cádiz) in 2027.
The reason why companies rely so much on ammonia is because it is relatively easy to use: ammonia is transported and stored at minus 33 degrees Celsius, while hydrogen has to be cooled to minus 253 degrees.
From the Basque Country to Amsterdam
The port authorities of Bilbao and Amsterdam have signed a third similar agreement for the supply of hydrogen to the Central European networks. The Basque Government Energy Agency (EVE) and the companies Petróleos del Norte, SA (Petronor), SkyNRG BV, Evos Amsterdam and Zenith Energy Terminals are also involved in the maritime corridor, which is quite short compared to the Rotterdam Treaties. The memorandum of understanding states that the parties will jointly develop a renewable hydrogen supply chain focused on production in the northern Spanish Basque Country and its export to the European hinterland via Amsterdam.
The port authorities of Bilbao and Amsterdam seal their cooperation in the presence of the King of the Netherlands (4th from right). © Zenith Energy
The port of Amsterdam, which is the fourth largest in Europe after Rotterdam, Antwerp and Hamburg, has a direct connection to Schiphol Airport, one of the largest European airports. Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) are considered an important part of the future decarbonization of this industry. One of the manufacturers is SkyNRG. The company says it has supplied SAF to more than 40 airlines and more than 70 companies worldwide and is developing a network of production facilities that require green hydrogen, including one in Amsterdam.
Zenith Energy Terminals and Evos Amsterdam, in turn, operate storage and handling facilities for gas, chemicals, petroleum products and renewable fuels in the port. Zenith is also planning a liquid hydrogen supply chain, while Evos is working on a liquid organic hydrogen carrier supply chain.
Center of the “Basque Hydrogen Corridor”
The port of Bilbao is part of the planned “Basque Hydrogen Corridor”. The project is being driven forward by the two Spanish mineral oil and petrochemical companies Petronor and Repsol SA.
The plan is to build electrolysers for the production of renewable hydrogen with a total capacity of 113 megawatts as well as a demonstration plant for the production of hydrogen-based fuels. The Basque energy strategy envisages, among other things, the installation of a total of 300 megawatts of electrolysis capacity and the annual production of 2.000 tons of synthetic fuels by 2030, as well as the local use of hydrogen in industry, the building sector and the transport and mobility sector.
Photos
Yara tanker for liquid gas in the port of Algeciras: transport and storage of ammonia is less complex than hydrogen. © Yara Clean Ammonia
