Portuguese power utility EDP and Spanish refiner Cepsa have combined their plans for green hydrogen production in Algeciras under the latter's Andalucian Green Hydrogen Valley initiative to develop 1GW of electrolysis.
This is Cepsa's second tie-up for hydrogen in southern Spain in less than a week, and it will secure supply of renewable energy for the development of large-scale hydrogen electrolysis in Algeciras.
EDP had planned to develop an initial 100MW electrolyser, photovoltaic (PV) power production and 255MW of li-Ion battery storage at its 568MW Los Barrios coal plant in the city. The plan, which projects up to 700MW of electrolysis at a later stage, was selected as a European Project of Common Interest (EU PCI) in September 2022 and was awarded €3.7mn of Spanish funding in December, with the cash earmarked for construction of the first 5MW of electrolysis capacity.
EDP will now join forces with Cepsa, which itself plans to develop 1GW of electrolysis capacity in Algeciras. Cepsa is targeting partnerships with renewable energy developers to enable its plans for 2GW equivalent in electrolysis capacity for hydrogen production spread evenly across its 220,000 b/d Huelva and 240,000 b/d Algeciras refineries, planned for 2028 and 2030 respectively.
Cepsa's plans in Algeciras will benefit from the tie up with EDP, and renewables developer Alter Enersun will develop 200MW of electrolysis capacity with gas grid operator Enagas at Huelva.
EDP now has strategic agreements to develop hydrogen production with Cepsa, with Repsol and with Portugal's Galp, the region's three largest refiners. A preliminary environmental impact assessment was approved last week for the EDP-Galp plans for 100MW of electrolysis capacity at EDP's former coal plant in Sines.
The power utility has two other projects in Spain which have been included as EU PCIs, one for a 100MW eletrolyser at a former coal plant in Asturias, and one for 25MW of capacity at its IAM Caecius project in Teruel.
