The French government was concerned this Friday by the resistance of Spain and Germany to claim that the European Union considers the hydrogen produced from electricity from nuclear power plants to be “clean”, jeopardizing the project to connect Barcelona to Marseille.
Sources from the French Ministry of Ecological Transition explained in statements to the Efe agency that without the transfer of nuclear energy for production, it would not be possible to inject the necessary hydrogen to make this compound profitable, and therefore it would not be possible build.
When asked if France will take advantage of the future of this connection, called H2Med – a project for new hydrogen transport connections that Portugal is part of – to put pressure on the partners, the same sources replied that Spain and Germany, as France, “do not want the viability of these projects to be jeopardized”.
In particular, they urged that both Berlin and Madrid recognize hydrogen produced from nuclear power as clean because of its low carbon emissions.
The French warnings about the H2Med are precisely a result of the “concern” of the French Minister for Ecological Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, about the position taken by Madrid and Berlin.
In France, about 70% of electricity is of nuclear origin thanks to the park of 56 nuclear reactors.
The French president has strengthened his commitment to nuclear power since announcing in January 2022 that his country would begin construction of at least six new nuclear reactors, which should be commissioned from 2037.
Germany and Spain, on the other hand, plan to close all their nuclear power plants.
At the end of this month, on 27 and 28 February, the ministers responsible for energy policy of the 27 will meet in Stockholm.
Source: DN
