Portugal and Spain are working to remove the obstacles to constructing an underwater green hydrogen (H₂) pipeline by 2030 as part of their vision to become renewables superpowers, their energy ministers said on Wednesday.

Dubbed BarMar, the planned link from Barcelona to Marseille is expected to cost €2.5 B ($2.67 B) and have a capacity of 2 metric MMtpy of million H₂.

Some analysts have questioned the feasibility of the project that would be part of H2MED, a planned network of H₂ infrastructure from the Iberian peninsula to France and on to Central Europe.

Portuguese Environment and Energy Minister Maria da Graca Carvalho told a joint press conference with Spain's Energy Minister Teresa Ribera that developers must submit project proposals to the European Commission by the end of September and that construction would start in 2027.

"Our (Portugal and Spain's) commitment is to comply with the timeline, to monitor all technological developments very closely, to try to remove barriers to the project," Carvalho said. "We will do everything."

She acknowledged H₂ is difficult to transport and "a lot of work to be done at a technological level.”

The Iberian peninsula's privileged solar and wind exposure makes it the perfect place to produce green H₂, produced from electrolyzers powered by renewable energy, at prices lower than those in central Europe, analysts say.

Ribera said "Spain and Portugal have the conditions to be a superpower" in renewable energy and both countries seek to use the cheap H₂ capacity they hope to build to decarbonize heavy industry and attract investment.

The European Union aims to produce 10 metric MMt and import 10 MMt of renewable H₂ by 2030 as part of the bloc's efforts to cut carbon emissions.