At the WEF 2023 Annual Meeting, an agenda article by Maarten Wetselaar described 7 reasons why Portugal and Spain are about to become a Green Hydrogen Powerhouse.
The WEF agenda article states that Portuguese and Spanish green hydrogen is not only highly cost-effective, but it is also a flexible fuel that can meet the EU energy needs.
Make no mistake, Europe needs clean hydrogen and the current energy crisis can be a turning point in the fight against climate change. While solar panels and wind turbines contribute to a fifth of the energy consumed, much more energy needs to be converted to meet the EU electricity needs. A number of sectors still rely heavily on fossil fuels, and these include inland freight, shipping, aviation and heavy industry to name a few.
This is why green hydrogen is seen as an essential source of energy and it has the added advantage of being carbon neutral. It can be carried across borders via pipelines, as well as be compressed or liquefied. The report states that, while it can be used in air and sea transport, it can also be converted into biofuels like biodiesel and Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), into e-ammonia and e-methanol, or even be burned directly as a fuel for heavy industry.
Since green hydrogen is a highly flexible fuel, the UNFCCC states that it can meet up to 20% of global energy demand by 2050, that is about the same share of energy that is used by the current electrical system.
Furthermore, Germany has launched the world’s first network of hydrogen-powered trains and Sweden is building its first hydrogen-based steel plant. Meanwhile, Rolls-Royce is working on a hydrogen-fueled jet engine.
According to the WEF agenda article, this leads to seven reasons why Portugal and Spain are about to become a Green Hydrogen Powerhouse. These are first, the potential through solar, wind, biomass, and hydropower; and second, this will lead to a fully-flexible electricity grid. The other reasons named are the geographic advantages, the potential for producing biomethane in rural areas, the strong demand on the Iberian peninsula that meets production costs, the already existing infrastructure with port facilities added to a natural gas pipeline network; and last but not least, the fact that both Portugal and Spain are part of the EU with easy market access.
The WEF report underlines the fact that Portuguese and Spanish green hydrogen can be produced at a quarter of the cost of traditional grey hydrogen with the advantage of also being clean energy.
Therefore, it is to be expected that both Portugal and Spain will become green hydrogen giants with massive investments pouring into the green hydrogen sector, thus propelling both countries as an energy powerhouse for the EU.
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