Aragon played a leading role in the presentation of the Complementary Renewable Hydrogen Plan at the National Hydrogen Centre in Puertollano (Ciudad Real), in an event attended by the Minister of Science and Innovation, Diana Morant; the President of the Regional Government of Castilla-La Mancha, Emiliano García-Page; and the Secretary of State for Energy, Sara Aagesen, who were accompanied by representatives from several autonomous communities and the Higher Centre for Scientific Research.
The Complementary Renewable Hydrogen Plan is the embodiment of the commitment signed last November by the General State Administration, through the Ministry of Science and Innovation and the CSIC, and the autonomous communities of Aragon, Madrid, Extremadura, Navarre, the Canary Islands, Castilla-La Mancha, the Principality of Asturias and the Basque Country to launch a joint R&D&I programme in the field of energy and renewable hydrogen.
The objective is to build synergies within the framework of the Complementary Plans that form part of Component 17 of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan promoted by the Spanish Government. It is endowed with 89 million euros and in Aragon alone will entail a direct investment in R&D&I of 5 million.
The Complementary Plan presented today sets out various strategic actions to be carried out in a coordinated manner by the autonomous communities that form part of the initiative and the CSIC to consolidate renewable hydrogen as a solution for the electrification of the national energy system, as well as for the decarbonisation of transport and industry.
These actions, divided into four large blocks (hydrogen generation, storage and distribution, hydrogen uses and transversal activities) aim to cover the entire hydrogen value chain with developments ranging from pilot or demonstrative solutions to more advanced ones that enable the incorporation of technology developed in Spain into the country’s energy network.
In Aragon, the projects will be linked to the decarbonisation of heavy transport and logistics, key sectors for the regional economy, and will be led and coordinated by us, the Hydrogen Foundation, and the Aragon Technology Institute ITAINNOVA.
To ratify our commitment to the plan and the actions it includes, the participating administrations have signed an institutional declaration in Puertollano that seeks to promote optimum coordination between all of them, share the results obtained and continue to make progress in establishing common priorities.
Our autonomous community has been represented by the general director of Innovation and Research of the Government of Aragon, Enrique Navarro; by the general director of Industry and SMEs, Javier Navarro Espada; and by our managing director of the Aragon Hydrogen Foundation, Fernando Palacín.
In his speech, the Director General of Innovation and Research highlighted how hydrogen “is set to be a key technology to achieve the decarbonisation and climate neutrality milestones that Europe has set for the coming years” and recalled the good starting point of Aragon, after 20 years working pioneering in hydrogen generation, storage, distribution and use.
“Aragon has designed its participation in this project to promote and maximise the knowledge and technologies present in our territory. On the one hand, we have integrated industrial companies from the logistics sector, on the other hand we have the experience in the sector of the Hydrogen Foundation, to all this we add the capacity to generate knowledge of our University of Zaragoza, and finally, we have the coordination of ITAINNOVA, with a track record of success in its technology transfer activities. With all this, we guarantee public-private collaboration and the effective transfer of the knowledge generated to the market”, he pointed out.
To conclude, Navarro pointed out that the location in Aragon of the largest logistics platform in southern Europe means that the use of programme funds is “particularly relevant to the decarbonisation of heavy transport”.
