"Green, baby, green". Pedro Sánchez has sent a message to Donald Trump in his opening speech at the third edition of Enagás' Hydrogen Day being held today in Madrid, by reformulating one of the major campaign slogans of the President of the United States, drill, baby, drill. In this way, Sánchez has once again positioned himself as the leader within Europe in opposition to Washington's new policy, advocating for Spain's renewable potential, crucial to break "the hydrocarbon monopoly that has conditioned Spain and the European Union's geopolitical will for a long time."
"We cannot continue to depend on foreign oil and gas to heat our homes or fuel our ambulances," Sánchez insisted. In the eyes of the Prime Minister, the European ecological transition is already causing havoc in certain "autocracies", who view the Old Continent "with fear, as they feel threatened."
The Government leader has brought a dose of realism to the audience, which has gathered the top figures of the renewable business, by acknowledging that there are industries that cannot be electrified. It is in this space that Sánchez has positioned green hydrogen, a market in which he claims, "Spain must be the epicenter." In fact, our country already accounts for 20% of the announced renewable hydrogen projects worldwide to date. However, the market anticipates that many of them may never materialize.
Sánchez has set the national export target for this clean fuel at two million tons annually "for our partners." To this end, he has announced a sort of rescue worth 400 million euros for Spanish projects that were submitted to the first European Hydrogen Bank auction and, despite receiving positive evaluation from the European Commission, were left out.
Also within the framework of European funds, the President of the Government has reported that, "in the coming weeks," the beneficiaries of the Hydrogen Valleys PERTE will be announced, one of the most ambitious aid packages convened to date, endowed with 1.300 billion euros.
Sánchez has reiterated his support for the H2MED corridor, a monumental project to transport green hydrogen from the Iberian Peninsula to Northern Europe, which still faces significant political and economic uncertainties. In fact, in 2025, two years after the Alicante agreement where Spain, France, and Portugal staged their alliance for the corridor; the H2MED is on the verge of entering a crucial phase: the request for the necessary European funding to make its construction viable.
Enagás CEO, Arturo Gonzalo Aizpiri, celebrated that 168 companies from the four allied countries registered 528 projects in the interest call that the company launched last November to assess the real market appetite for reserving capacity in Spain's future hydrogen network.
"The milestones planned for 2025 indicate that in the coming months both the Spanish hydrogen trunk network and the H2Med corridor are going to take a big step towards becoming a reality," Aizpiri emphasized. The executive also announced that Enagás will soon present to the second call for European Common Interest Projects (PCI) four new sections of the hydrogen trunk network in Spain.
This is a key step, as these are the branches that will allow hydrogen projects located in different regions to inject their fuel into the pipeline network that will transport it throughout the country. Specifically, Aizpiri revealed that these sections are Guitiriz (Lugo)-Zamora, Huelva-Algeciras, the one crossing the northern plateau to connect Zamora and Navarra, and the one starting from Puertollano to link Madrid and the Levante.
Spain, a country of cheap energy?
Pedro Sánchez's speech took place less than 24 hours after the agreement between the Government and Junts that yesterday saved in extremis the block of social measures from the deceased omnibus decree. The tax measures did not survive, which the separatist party wants to negotiate separately. Among these are the relief measures for the energy costs of electro-intensive industries, a key measure to reduce the competitiveness gap that separates Spanish companies from those in other European countries.
Paradoxically, Sánchez argued before the crowded audience that Spain is the fifth most sustainable economy among the major ones on the planet, something that, according to the PSOE leader, has allowed our country "to have electricity 30% cheaper" than that of other countries in the region. This is not the case for electro-intensive companies, whose bills exceed those of countries like France and Germany, a difference that is about to worsen if the Government fails to push through the aforementioned relief measure, whose outcome will impact more than 200 million in the industry's accounts.
"We will take that part to Congress and approve it in the Council of Ministers in the coming weeks. We are working on it from now on," said this morning, minutes before Sánchez's speech, the Minister of the Presidency, Justice, and Relations with the Courts, Félix Bolaños, in an interview on RTVE.