The Spanish government has granted €150m ($166m) to a French-owned green hydrogen project for which it originally sought clearance from the EU to grant €220m — however details about the project are thin on the ground.
The so-called Green Cobra project, under development by Cobra Instalaciones y Servicios (Cobra IS) a subsidiary of French infrastructure firm Vinci, aims to develop a “complete green hydrogen supply chain in Spain, including the production, storage, transportation and distribution of hydrogen”, according to Spain’s minister of industry and tourism, Jordi Hereu, at a press conference today (Tuesday).
The €742m scheme would be housed across the city of Cartagena and province of Castellón, located some 380km apart on Spain’s east coast, said Hereu, without giving any further details.
When the EU designated Green Cobra an Important Project of Common European Interest (IPCEI) in October 2022, it gave permission for Madrid to grant up to €220m towards the scheme, which was originally expected to produce its first hydrogen last year.
The IPCEI iteration of the project was described as two electrolysers totalling 205MW, producing 8,500 tonnes per year of green hydrogen for the hard-to-abate sectors, such as refining and ceramics.
It is unclear why the Spanish government has not issued funding for the full €220m it originally applied for, raising the question of whether the project specifics have changed since 2022.
In July Cobra IS won a contract to supply piping and mechanical works at the new direct reduced iron (DRI) green steel plant currently under construction in Duisberg, Germany by Thyssenkrupp.
