Basque Country
Basque Country
Petronor
Petronor
Within the deployment of our strategy to lead the energy transition and reduce carbon emissions is the 100-MW capacity Hydrogen project, at the Petronor Complex in the Muskiz industrial area in the Basque Country.
The facility will be designed to produce 1.8 tonnes of renewable H2 per hour, generating renewable hydrogen and oxygen for local consumers and will prevent up to 167,000 tonnes of CO2 being released per year. As a result, the project stands to be a significant contributor to the widespread adoption of renewable hydrogen, with an important impact at an environmental, economic, and social level.
The project is found in the Basque Hydrogen Corridor (BH2C), a strategic initiative that seeks to position the Basque Country as a reference in the production, distribution, and use of renewable hydrogen. BH2C is a collaboration between various public and private organizations, including companies, research centers, and local administrations, with the aim of driving the energy transition and decarbonization of the economy.
The objectives of this project are:
- Contribute to achieving the national renewable H2 generation objective of 12 GW electrolyzer power according to the PNIEC 2023-2030 (updated in Sep. 2024).
- Reduction of CO2 emissions associated with the generation of conventional H2 (gray/fossil) by steam reforming of hydrocarbons.
- Reduce consumption and, therefore, importation of fossil natural gas, reducing energy defendence outside Spain.
The hydrogen produced in the project will be mainly used for consumption in the Bilbao refinery as a raw material in replacement of part of the conventional hydrogen currently generated, and will also transform the sector by reducing dependence on fossils and will contribute to the creation of a new market, activating a virtuous circle of supply and demand growth, which thanks to production scaling, will allow the reduction of costs that will make the use possible in other final uses as well as industrial.
The Petronor project not only represents a significant advancement in the production of renewable hydrogen in Spain but has also been recognized as an Important Project of Common European Interest (IPCEI). As such, it is slated to receive €160 million in funding from the EU's Recovery and Resilience Facility through the Spanish government's Plan for Recovery, Transformation, and Resilience, which distributes NextGenerationEU funding. This recognition highlights the relevance of the project for innovation and competitiveness in European industry, as well as its contribution to the climate and energy goals of the European Union.
ES53 "Petronor Large Scale Electrolyzer" is a project funded by the European Union-NextGenerationEU
Updated as of October 2025.