UAE sovereign wealth fund Mubadala and Masdar, the clean energy giant jointly owned by TAQA, Mubadala, and ADNOC are backing Southern Europe’s largest green hydrogen hub in Spain.

Last week, Spanish energy company Moeve, majority-owned by Mubadala, reached Final Investment Decision (FID) on Andalusian Green Hydrogen Valley project, where it is a 51 percent stakeholder with Masdar and Enalter (majority owned by Enagás Renovable) as minority partners,

The 300 megawatt (MW) first phase, known as Onuba, entails a total investment of more than €1 billion ($1.2 billion), including associated infrastructure and the development of a photovoltaic plant, according to Moeve’s press statement.

Phase 1 includes an option to expand by an additional 100 MW, subject to obtaining additional grid capacity and board approval.

While construction timeline specifics weren’t released, Moeve said the Board of Directors has approved the FID to begin construction in the coming weeks.

At 300 MW, Onuba will have the capacity to produce around 45,000 tonnes of green hydrogen per year, avoiding about 250,000 tonnes of CO2 annually.

The green hydrogen from the plant will be used for aviation, road and marine transport fuels, in addition to supplying energy to decarbonise the chemical and fertiliser industries.

Onuba is the first of the green hydrogen production centres planned as part of Andalusian Green Hydrogen Valley, and will be located in Palos de la Frontera Energy Park (Huelva). The second plant is planned to be in the San Roque Energy Park (Cádiz).

The initiative has been designated as a Project of Common European Interest (PCI) by the European Commission and has received €304 million from the Government of Spain under the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, financed by the European Union’s Next Generation EU programme, through the Hydrogen Valleys scheme, for the development of 400 MW of the Andalusian Green Hydrogen Valley.

(Writing by Anoop Menon; Editing by SA Kader)

(anoop.menon@lseg.com)

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