- 78 public and private entities have presented at the Euskalduna Palace the macro-project for the construction of a pipeline between the port of Bilbao and Zorrotzaurre. The forecast is that around EUR 1.3 billion will be invested between 2020 and 2026. Petronor Repsol is one of the main promoters of the project.
The 78 organisations that will participate in one way or another in the Basque Hydrogen Corridor (BH2C) have signed a Memorandum of Cooperation. Six are public entities, twelve are technological or development centres and 58 are private enterprises. As explained in the presentation, the promoters plan to generate 1,340 direct jobs in six years and 6,700 indirect jobs worldwide. The Euskalduna Palace in Bilbao has called for cooperation between the public and private sectors.
Petronor President Emiliano López Atxurra has stated that the project will boost the industry and that it is “what needs to be done together”, asking for public protection. Economic Development Advisor Arantxa Tapia has placed BH2Ca in the energy transformation being driven from Europe. The Basque Government has called for a large amount of Next Generation funding to be made available for the corridor, but the counsellor has ensured that it will be done or not. “That’s where the money comes to advance faster, but it will be done even if the money does not come.”
Energy macro-project
The Basque Hydrogen Corridor is a gas pipeline that would pass under the river. The aim of the promoters is to produce 20,000 tonnes of hydrogen per year and to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by one and a half million tonnes per year. Lander Arbelaitz stressed in the analysis of the Next Generation funds that the economic weight of the projects submitted by the Basque Government to these funds is the greatest: “It is a project of 1.144 million euros, of which they intend to buy 220 million to collaborate with companies such as Petronor, Repsol or Sener”.