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BP and EDP hold investment in green hydrogen projects until Spanish government releases promised cash

Oil giant is also waiting for Madrid to firm up renewable H2 regulation so it can pull the trigger on billions of euros in investment

BP's Castellon refinery in Spain.
BP's Castellon refinery in Spain.Photo: flickr/BP images

Two developers of large-scale green hydrogen projects in Spain, BP and EDP, are still waiting on the national government to deliver its promised grants, which the firms need to pull the trigger on billions of euros in investment.

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British oil giant BP is also holding fire on its project, the €2bn ($2.15bn) HyVal scheme, until Madrid finalises key regulations mandating the use and definition of green H2, according to reports.

Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez earlier this month pledged to allocate €900m across ten projects.

However, Portuguese energy company EDP confirmed to Hydrogen Insight yesterday (Tuesday) that its share of the promised funding, which was pledged for its 150MW green hydrogen project on the site of a closed coal plant in Asturias, is still pending, although it anticipates receiving the grant imminently.

Spanish press reported that the company is expecting up to €78m in funding from the national government for the project.

EDP has already secured €48m of the plant’s €200m development cost via the EU Innovation Fund and Spain’s post-Covid recovery plan.

Meanwhile, BP’s €2bn investment into HyVal — a 2GW green hydrogen project to decarbonise its refinery in Castellón, starting with 200MW of electrolysis capacity in 2027 — does not just hinge on promised grants being delivered, news site El Español reported this week.
“It also depends on whether we have the necessary regulatory conditions to make ... the final investment decision,” Andrés Guevara, BP’s president in Spain, reportedly told a recent conference in Valencia, describing the transposition of the EU’s updated Renewable Energy Directive (RED III) into national law as “fundamental”.

This EU-level policy includes a target for 42% of hydrogen used in industry to be renewable by 2030.

Some oil companies, such as Shell and Galp, have already taken a final investment decision on electrolyser projects to displace a share of their existing grey H2 at European refineries, while French major TotalEnergies launched a tender for 500,000 tonnes of renewable hydrogen last year.

However, BP appears to be waiting on Spain’s government to publish the exact regulations that will incentivise companies to meet this target.

EU member states were given 18 months from October 2023, when RED III was published in the official journal, to transpose the targets into their national laws, which could potentially take the form of strict penalties and include interim milestones toward meeting the 42% target.

Guevara reportedly raised that a draft ministerial order has already been published and gone through public consultation, suggesting Spain could see this regulation finalised well before the spring 2025 deadline.

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SpainEuropeBPEDPGreen H2
Published 21 February 2024, 09:23Updated 21 February 2024, 09:23