Repsol will start up the first electrolyzer in the northern Spanish region of the Basque Country in the second half of 2022, to produce renewable hydrogen at its Petronor refinery. The facility will have a capacity of 2.5 MW and will involve an investment of €8.9 MM, covering the construction of the necessary infrastructures for the use and distribution of the renewable hydrogen produced.

The electrolyzer will serve Petronor's own refinery and different entities at the nearby Margen Izquierda Technology Park, located in the municipality of Abanto-Zierbena. These include the Energy Intelligence Center and the first hydrogen plant in the Basque Country, a facility promoted by the Basque Energy Agency (EVE) and Repsol that will supply the technology park’s own mobility logistics platform made up of light vehicles and buses.

The project will be carried out by the engineering firms Sener and John Cockerill, while the pipelines that will transport the renewable hydrogen produced at Petronor to the Margen Izquierda Technology Park will be constructed by Nortegas.

This project is included in the Basque Hydrogen Corridor (BH2C) Initiative, promoted by Petronor and Repsol to accelerate the economic recovery of the Basque Country and Spain, as a whole, while advancing the decarbonization of the economy and promoting strategic sectors such as energy, mobility, industry, and services.

Among the projects already underway, the installation of other electrolyzers in the vicinity of its industrial complexes and the adaptation of conventional units to the production of renewable hydrogen through the use of biogas is advancing.

In 2024, a 10 MW electrolyzer is scheduled to be commissioned in the port of Bilbao, in a collaboration with Enagás and the EVE. The hydrogen will be produced with 100% renewable electricity and supplied by Repsol to one of the world's largest plants for synthetic fuels with zero net emissions. To manufacture these sustainable fuels, valid for any mobility segment, the only raw materials used will be hydrogen and CO2. The project, which is progressing according to plan, has collaborators of the stature of Saudi Aramco and has a strong component of innovation led by the Repsol Technology Lab research center.

In 2025, also in the Bilbao area, a third electrolyzer, in this case of 100MW, will be commissioned to accelerate Petronor's decarbonization process and feed the needs of the Basque Hydrogen Corridor. The company is also planning an additional electrolyzer with a capacity of 100 MW at its Cartagena industrial complex, within the framework of the Green Hydrogen Platform of the Region of Murcia, centered around the Escombreras Valley.