Two green hydrogen projects in Andorra and Caspe receive 384 million in European funds

The Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (Miteco) has formalized this Friday an injection of up to 1,214 million euros of European funds for seven green hydrogen projects, two of them in the province of Teruel, within the H2 Valles program. The Community has raised 384 million: 245 for the Catalina de Andorra project , promoted by CIP and Enagás, which could raise up to 534 for the subsidy, and 138 (out of up to 304) have gone to Hyberus (Caspe, Fabara and, in Catalonia, Ascó).

Catalina was conceived during the previous Government, with Javier Lambán as president and Arturo Aliaga (PAR) as the Minister responsible for Energy. Its construction, scheduled between March of this year and December 2027, will require an investment of around 1,847 million euros. It could generate more than 1,200 direct jobs during its commissioning and 400 when it comes into operation . This is one of the main initiatives of the Nudo Mudéjar and it is expected to have a hydrogen production plant and several wind and photovoltaic parks in the Andorran town and other nearby ones.

The goal is for it to have an initial capacity of 500 megawatts, which could grow to two gigawatts. In figures, the promoters estimated a production capacity of 84,000 tons of green hydrogen per year, 336,000 from 2030.

More recent is the launch of HyBerus, although it was under the name of Project Pilar. Alkeymia (Capital Energy) will invest 700 million to produce and store both hydrogen (208 million) and ammonia (272). The works could start at the end of this year in different phases throughout 2027 and 2028 to create 85 maintenance jobs and 1,000 during construction . 30,000 tons of hydrogen and 160,000 tons of ammonia would be generated annually. The latter could in turn go to the manufacture of fertilizers or different chemical products .

The Turboleta SAF project by Solarig, aimed at the production of green fuel for aviation and with a planned investment of 1.15 billion in the Platea area (Teruel) , has not passed the test to access the funds . By communities, the 384 million in subsidies for Aragon place the region above Andalusia (304) , Castile and Leon (259) , Galicia (170) and Catalonia (98).

The department headed by Sara Aagesen emphasises that when selecting the files, priority has been given to those that “undertake additional processes of synthesis, storage and/or transport of green fuels derived from hydrogen”, as is the case in Caspe with ammonia. Criteria such as “ technical solidity, economic solvency ” and social and environmental aspects have also been considered. In this sense, the Catalina project is located in a location belonging to the “municipalities with a demographic challenge”, they point out.