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Speaking at the EU-Med 9 summit in Alicante on Friday, the Spanish president announced the start of a new gas pipeline that will eventually carry hydrogen from Barcelona to Marseille in a project that will cost around 2.5 billion euros.
The aim is to supply hydrogen, which is produced from renewable sources rather than fossil fuels, and thus help reduce Europe’s reliance on Russian gas and oil.
But it will take years to complete.
“H2MED, which will be operational at the end of this decade, will be able to transport, as the President of the Commission said, 10 percent of the hydrogen consumption of the European Union by 2030 – about two million tons per year,” Pedro Sánchez said.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said it would help the EU “build a real European hydrogen backbone”.
Originally designed to temporarily transport gas from the Iberian Peninsula to the rest of the EU to reduce dependence on Russian gas, H2Med will now only be used to transport hydrogen, said Antonio Costa, Portugal’s prime minister.
The decision not to transport fossil fuels was necessary to ensure Brussels could declare it a “project of common interest”, he added.
The governments involved hope to present the project before December 15 in order to apply for European funds that could cover up to 50 percent of infrastructure costs.
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