Ribera says they want to present BarMar project to the European Commission before December 15

The Government wants to present the, now called H2MED, at the Euro-Mediterranean Summit that will take place on December 8 and 9

The Minister for the Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, has said that she wants to present before December 15 to the European Commission (EC) the BarMar underwater green energy corridor project, now called H2MED, so that it can benefit from funds from the Connecting Europe Facility program.

Ribera, to questions from journalists in the presentation of the balance of the first month of the + Energy Security Plan, pointed out that in this future submarine connection to transport gas and green hydrogen the operators of the gas systems of Portugal, France and Spain, the three countries that have agreed on this project, are working.

The BarMar before at the Summit than at the EC

The minister has indicated that the objective is to present the complete document at the next Euro-Mediterranean Summit, which will take place in Alicante on December 8 and 9, and before December 15 present it to the EC.

The Connecting Europe Facility is the EU’s funding programme for implementing the trans-European energy networks policy.

Regarding the electricity interconnection projects in Navarra and Aragon, Ribera stated that Red Eléctrica has contacted its French counterpart.

For the minister, it is good news that the French minister, Emmanuel Macron, insists on accelerating all electricity interconnection procedures, something that she recalled had not always happened in the past with France.

Ribera has indicated that he hopes that these two interconnections, additional to that of the Bay of Biscay, will have a concrete project as soon as possible.

The working groups

He also recalled that at the Spanish-Portuguese summit, held in Viana do Castelo, it was agreed to create a working group for issues related to water and energy, and both countries have committed to creating a common regime for electricity storage.

This will serve to see how it regulates hydraulic pumping and payment for availability of the pumping service where there are reversible plants.

He explained that, in the absence of regulation by the EU, both countries, given that the Iberian market is integrated, have understood that it is good to move forward together in that regulation.

Ribera has pointed out that this opens a “shared management” on the jobs of electricity storage systems, in principle linked to hydroelectric generation, but not only, but also for batteries and hydrogen.

Source: The Energy Newspaper