Repsol is progressing its industrial plan with the approval from its Board of Directors to build the largest electrolyzer it has developed to date. The 150MW plant in Spain will generate power for the Ecoplanta and various other refinery units.
The electrolyzer is being manufactured by Repsol and Enagas Renovable, which possesses a 25% interest in the project, via a joint venture. It will be able to generate over 22,000 metric tons of renewable hydrogen each year, which Repsol is going to employ predominantly to generate renewable methanol as well as other low-carbon footprint products. This 150MW plant in Spain is expected to prevent as many as 250,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions annually. The project also opens the prospect in the near future of providing renewable hydrogen to the natural gas infrastructure and also to the Spanish Hydrogen Backbone network.
This project is a reaffirmation of the commitment made by Repsol to the Spanish sector and to the transformation of its manufacturing facilities to guarantee their continued competitive advantage. The electrolyzer in Tarragona will contribute to strengthening the industrial sector and will generate around 1,000 jobs, direct, indirect as well as induced, mostly local, in the various stages of the project.
The alliance of the two companies brings together the industrial capacity and knowledge of hydrogen consumption by Repsol, with Enagas Renovable’s experience when it comes to developing green molecule manufacturing projects. Enagas Renovable is a company that is 80% owned by Hy24 and 20% held by Enagas that creates projects in Spain that are beneficial to the decarbonization of the industry as well as heavy-duty transport.
The project, which represents an investment of around €400 million, has been selected as one of the strategic initiatives of the Hydrogen Valleys program, which is endorsed by the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge within the Recovery, Transformation, and Resilience Plan, financed by the NextGenerationEU funds, and will be awarded funding of almost €104 million. This support is in line with the size of the project and its capacity to link renewable hydrogen production with its application in industry and the manufacture of renewable fuels.
According to Maribel Rodríguez, director of Renewable Hydrogen at Repsol, “This electrolyzer and the Ecoplanta represent an integrated industrial platform that places Tarragona at the heart of our transformation. Together, they will enable us to incorporate new technologies and capabilities to produce renewable fuels and products with a low carbon footprint at scale, strengthen the complex’s competitiveness, and help sustain an essential, innovative, and future-ready industry in Europe.”
The Director of Business Development and Hydrogen Operations at Enagas Renovables, Luis Iglesias, for his part, said that “With this project in Tarragona, we are expanding our partnership with Repsol and strengthening our commitment to bringing renewable hydrogen to locations where industrial demand already exists. This is a project of significant scale that adds to the network of industrial hubs that are positioning Spain as a leader in green molecules in southern Europe.”
Renewable hydrogen – a catalyst for industrial change
The facility, which is indeed a groundbreaking project in Spain in regard to scale, will be equipped with advanced technology to maximize energy savings and will use only recycled industrial wastewater. The new electrolyzer will be the foundation for two vital ecosystems that propel the hydrogen economy in southern Europe – the Catalonia Hydrogen Valley as well as the Ebro Hydrogen Corridor.
The Tarragona electrolyzer is added to the two large-scale renewable hydrogen projects previously announced by Repsol in Cartagena, which are also in alliance with Enagás Renovable and the Petronor in close proximity to Bilbao. The extra 150 MW brings the total capacity of the three projects to 350 MW.
Notably, Repsol is the largest producer and consumer of hydrogen in the Iberian Peninsular. Its industrial facilities have an output of about 360,000 tons/year, which is 60% of the national production and 4% of the European usage.
Since 2023, the company has been generating renewable hydrogen by employing a 2.5 MW electrolyzer, primarily to supply the Petronor refinery.
The work on an additional 10 MW electrolyzer at the Port of Bilbao is practically finished, built by a consortium supervised by Petronor, and which additionally involves Enagas Renovable as well as the Basque Energy Agency. The renewable hydrogen generated will be used to supply Repsol and the synthetic fuels demonstration plant by Aramco, which is also in the last stage of construction. Repsol is finishing a 4 MW electrolyzer in Sines, Portugal, to power the new polymer materials plants, lowering their environmental impact.