One of Europe’s largest planned renewable hydrogen projects, Spain’s HyDeal Espana, has halved its electrolyser capacity targets and will come on line nearly three years later than planned.
HyDeal Espana will now reach 3.3GW of installed electrolyser capacity by 2031, developer HyDeal’s president Thierry Lepercq said today at the World Hydrogen and Renewables Iberia conference in Madrid. This constitutes a sizeable reduction from 7.4GW initially targeted for 2030. Hydrogen output is now expected at 150,000 t/yr, down from 330,000 t/yr.
Associated renewable power assets have been downsized accordingly. HyDeal is now targeting 4.4GW of solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity by 2031, down from 9.5GW previously envisaged for 2030. The plant’s targeted start-up has been pushed back to 2028 from the end of 2025.
Lepercq provided little detail on the reasons for downsizing the plans or for delaying the start date. But he told Argus HyDeal is looking to take a more “pragmatic” approach following discussions with different parties including potential financiers, buyers, and other companies involved in the supply chain. The facility could still be expanded to 7GW electrolyser capacity in the long term, but there is no firm timeline for this now, according to Lepercq, who said HyDeal’s longer-term ambitions have not changed.
Fertiliser producer Fertiberia and steel maker ArcelorMittal will buy some of the plant’s output, but Lepercq said HyDeal is looking for more customers. It is also working with Spanish gas system operator Enagas to enable deliveries into the future Spanish hydrogen backbone.
The developer aims to produce hydrogen at a cost of around €2.50/kg, which would allow it to reach “fossil-fuel parity without subsidies”. Argus currently calculates costs for producing hydrogen in Spain using dedicated solar PV and wind assets and a 100MW electrolyser at just under €4.70/kg. Production costs could fall in the coming years as costs for renewable power and electrolysers decline and reach economies of scale.
The much more modest ambitions for HyDeal Espana could be a blow to Spain reaching its 2030 electrolyser capacity target, which is the highest for any EU country. Madrid wants 11GW by 2030, having recently revised this up from 4GW. That said, the 11GW was in any case rather modest. Spain’s minister for ecological transition, Teresa Ribera, said in June that the portfolio of planned projects in the country totalled 16GW at the time.