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Hydrogen pipeline between Spain and France to be ready ‘by 2030’

An ambitious underwater pipeline to bring hydrogen from the Iberian Peninsula to the rest of Europe will be completed by 2030 and cost some €2.5 billion, the leaders of France, Spain and Portugal said Friday.

Hydrogen pipeline between Spain and France to be ready 'by 2030'
France's President Emmanuel Macron, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez shake hands following a joint press conference after holding a meeting to discuss the H2Med underwater hydrogen pipeline initiative. Photo: Ludovic MARIN/AFP

The H2Med project comes as Europe is scrambling to reduce its dependence on Russian energy following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. It is also seen as helping Europe transition away from fossil fuels to cleaner energy.

The pipeline between Barcelona and Marseille — also known as the “BarMar” project — will carry two million tonnes of hydrogen per year, or 10 percent of expected European consumption, once it goes online, said Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.

“It is going to be the first major hydrogen corridor in the European Union,” Sánchez said.

The project will cost around €2.5 billion ($2.6 billion), he said at a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron and Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa.

The three leaders formally signed off on the plans in the presence of EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen on the sidelines of a regional EU summit.

Following the talks, they released a roadmap and timeline for completing H2Med which they hope will be partially covered by European funds.

If approved by Brussels, European funding could cover about half the cost, €1.2 billion, French sources said. The remainder could be borne by future consumers in a process that is still to be set out.

The pipeline under the Mediterranean Sea will carry green hydrogen, which is made from water via electrolysis in a process using renewable energy.

But French officials said they had not ruled out that it could also carry hydrogen produced from nuclear power.

The roadmap detailed three options for the route of the pipeline, with the preferred one stretching 455 kilometres (282 miles) at a maximum depth of almost 2,600 metres.

Construction would begin in 2025 and last four years and eight months, it said.

Cleaner energy

H2Med aims to boost the decarbonisation of European industry, giving it large-scale access to clean energy from Spain and Portugal, which are hoping to become world leaders in green hydrogen thanks to their numerous wind and solar power farms.

“The focus of H2 demand is on sectors that are difficult to decarbonise, such as industry and transport,” the roadmap said. “The cost of H2 transmission by pipeline over long distances is 2 to 4 times lower than transmitting electricity over high-voltage lines,” it said.

Announced at an EU summit in October, the pipeline offers an alternative to the defunct 2003 MidCat pipeline project which was to have carried gas across the Pyrenees from Spain to France.

It was abandoned in 2019 over profitability issues and objections from Paris and environmentalists.

Initially, the idea was for the pipeline to carry gas from the Iberian Peninsula to central Europe, given Spain and Portugal’s huge capacity for turning liquefied natural gas (LNG) that arrives in tankers back into gas form.

But Portugal’s Costa stressed that the planned pipeline would only carry green hydrogen.

The meeting took place just before a EuroMed 9 summit which groups Croatia, Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain.

Spain’s Sánchez had planned to hold bilateral talks with Italy’s new far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, but she pulled out due to illness early on Friday, Rome said.

Sanchez and Macron announced on Twitter that the next summit between their two countries would take place on January 19 in Spain.

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ENERGY

Gas bills to rise by over 11% in France in July

For households that use gas for heating, cooking or hot water, bills will go up again in July as regulators increase tariffs.

Gas bills to rise by over 11% in France in July

Starting on July 1st, gas bills will increase for the 10.5 million households in France which either heat with gas or use it for cooking and hot water.

France’s energy regulatory commission (Commission de régulation de l’énergie, or CRE) announced on Monday that the estimated increase for the benchmark price in June to July would be 11.7 percent. 

The price increase is related general market trends, but it also has to do with French consumption of gas dropping.

“We are witnessing the gradual exit from fossil fuels, with some consumers switching to electricity. In the meantime, those who remain on gas are fewer in number, but they must bear the costs,” Jacques Percebois, an economist with a speciality in energy, told Ouest France.

In France, the price one pays for gas includes the cost per kilowatt of consumption, taxes and the cost of delivery, with the base rate set by the regulator.

How much will my bills increase by?

The average household in France consumes 1,123kWh of gas per month, giving them a current monthly bill of around €124.

With the price increase, this bill will go up by about €14.80, with a little over half of that owing to the cost of distribution and about a third due to the increase in prices on wholesale markets, according to Ouest France’s calculations.

For those only using gas for cooking and hot water, the average monthly bill would go up from €20 to €23.30 a year.

Ultimately, the exact amount your bill will go up by will depend on your supplier, although companies tend to have broadly similar tariffs. 

Will the cost keep going up?

Experts expect the benchmark price to increase again by approximately 10 percent in August. However, it is also worth noting that expected prices dropped between February and June, according to MoneyVox.

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