The Vice President and Minister of Energy Transition and Productive Sectors, Juan Pedro Yllanes, has signed the declaration of intent with the promoters (Cemex, Acciona, Enagas and REDEX) of the Lloseta hydrogen plant project, with the University of the Balearic Islands and the Institute for Energy Diversification and Saving (IDAE), to start up this facility.
It should be remembered that from the beginning of the legislature, the Ministry of Energy Transition and Productive Sectors assessed and studied the project in depth and after talking to all the actors involved and providing a series of suggestions, it was decided to resize the project. The objective of this rethinking is that it should be viable, appropriate to the energy needs of the Autonomous Community and that it should reduce energy losses.
In this sense, the uses to which the sustainable hydrogen generated will be put have been redefined, following the criteria of the EU and the scientific community, to guarantee maximum efficiency and socio-economic, environmental and public interest benefit. One of the significant changes is the decision to allocate a large part of the hydrogen generated by dumping it on the network, so that it can gradually replace natural gas. In this way, its use is extended beyond road transport, where it is not as efficient.
It is worth noting the inclusion of the University of the Balearic Islands in this agreement of intentions, so that the knowledge generated from the production and use of sustainable hydrogen will directly benefit the islands’ economy as a whole. In this way, academic and research actions related to sustainable and safe mobility, energy transition and the energy mix, etc. will be carried out.
It has also signed the IDAE agreement that will provide a major boost in identifying public aid to finance the project and its potential uses.
Yllanes pointed out “that it is very important to involve the public sector in this type of project, which will be key to the economic reconstruction of the community, as well as the State”.
It should be remembered that on 12th April last, Vice-President Yllanes already sent a letter to the European Union, supporting the project to resize the Lloseta hydrogen plant, with the aim of helping the companies that are participating to apply for European energy innovation programmes.
The resized project meets the energy transition criteria focused on hydrogen generation with renewable energies in order to advance towards energy sovereignty, comply with the Balearic Climate Change Act and is aligned with the objectives of decarbonization
Yllanes stresses that “a project like this, based on reindustrialization based on renewables, which also provides knowledge, research and innovation is a milestone that the Balearic Islands cannot afford to miss”.