Yesterday was a big day for the island of Mallorca because it was announced that the project Green Hysland in the Balearic Islands was chosen to enter grant negotiations valued at 10 million euros with the EU Commission’s Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH JU). This is in line with both European and Spanish ambitions to focus on renewable hydrogen as the driver of transition to climate neutrality by 2050.
The Mallorcan project will serve as a blueprint for other European islands
As we recently reported, Spain is planning to make renewable hydrogen production a central axis of its reindustrialization effort in this decade. That is why it comes as no surprise that Green Hysland was picked to become the flagship project and a first of its kind in Southern Europe.
The island is considered to be perfectly located for the development of such an initiative thanks to its abundance of sunlight all year long. This free energy source will be used for the production, distribution and usage of at least 300 tonnes of green hydrogen per year.
“It is essential to involve the public sector in these types of projects, which will be key to the economic reconstruction not only for our Autonomous Community but also of the State. In addition, this project will not only promote reindustrialization based on renewables, but will also provide knowledge, research and innovation. It is a milestone that the Balearic Islands must take advantage of in order to promote the diversification of the production model with new, stable and quality jobs,” said Juan Pedro Yllanes, Minister of Energy Transition in the Balearic Government.
Renewable hydrogen can have multiple applications for the regional economy. Among them are: fuel for fuel cell vehicles, heat generation for buildings, auxiliary power supply for ferries and ports. It can also be injected into the gas pipeline system in order to decarbonizes gas supply and provide for renewable electricity generation.
The Green Hysland project is expected to be developed between 2021 and 2025 and aims to cut down on CO2 emissions in Mallorca by 20 700 tonnes per year. It is also expected to serve as a blueprint for five other island territories in Europe: Tenerife (Spain), Madeira (Portugal), Aran (Ireland), Ameland (the Netherlands) and the Greek Islands.
Source: TheMayor.EU
