Iberdrola and Tramo, the world’s largest marine marketer and distributor of anhydrous ammonia, have signed the largest green ammonia infrastructure agreement in Europe for product sales of up to 100,000 tonnes per year through 2026, the energy company reported Friday.
The contract specifies that Iberdrola will build the first green ammonia plant in Southern Europe that will be viable for European funds and will involve an investment of 750 million euros. Iberdrola is currently developing green methanol and ammonia plants in Europe, the United States, Australia and other countries. This first plant represents the consolidation of a global growth strategy in green hydrogen and its derivative products, according to the same source.
The construction of the first green ammonia plant will create 3,500 jobs, mostly occupied by local workers. The green ammonia plant will be linked to the creation of 500 MW of new renewable energy. Furthermore, it will contribute to the creation of industrial and innovation opportunities in a growing market with a high export component. The green ammonia produced from the plant will be bought and sold by Tramo to decarbonize various energy-intensive heavy industries across the continent, such as in the Netherlands, Germany or France.
The project aims to launch the European Green Hydrogen Corridor. Southern Europe has great renewable potential that allows it to supply competitive green energy to decarbonize the hard-to-decarbonize heavy, energy-intensive industry of its European partners.
“When you bring together the world’s largest renewable energy developers and the world’s largest marine trader of anhydrous ammonia, innovative projects like this can quickly become viable. For a year now, we have Operating a hydrogen plant gives us the experience and understanding of the processes and technology needed to rapidly scale up these large projects,” says Milan García-Tola, Global Director of Green Hydrogen. from Iberdrola.
Green ammonia can be used in existing applications, such as fertilizer production or in the decarbonization of chemical industries. Furthermore, enormous market growth is expected in new uses of this product, for example, as a marine fuel or to make the transportation of green hydrogen viable. This end use is essential to save water, as green hydrogen allows us to reduce water consumption by more than 40% compared to a gray ammonia plant.
Iberdrola is developing more than 60 hydrogen projects in 8 countries, including green ammonia and green methanol, in geographies such as Iberia, the United States or Australia. In addition to Iberdrola, other energy giants such as Cepsa and Endesa have their own projects for the development of green hydrogen. That part of the oil company looks to northern Europe, with a planned corridor from Algeciras to the port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands.
But all that glitters is not gold. According to data from the Hydrogen Council, by the beginning of 2023, the total number of announced hydrogen projects in Europe will reach 107 billion euros. However, the association, composed of oil giants such as BP, Shell or TotalEnergy, and energy companies such as French Engie, highlights that 95% of these initiatives are in the planning stage. Which is to say that only 5% moves forward effectively (5,300 million worth) and practically 102,000 million are still in the air.
According to sources in large companies consulted by CincoDías, this low level of operation worries the private sector, as it could generate significant delays in meeting the ambitious decarbonization forecasts set by the Old Continent for 2030.
In addition, they warn that if only half of the announcements are met, which in Europe’s case would be 80 gigawatts (80GW) of electrolysis capacity, the race to attract skilled labor and manufacturing capacity will skyrocket costs. Can
