Through this plan, Euskadi intends to promote and complement other strategic initiatives that have been launched in the region, such as the "Basque Hydrogen Corridor", of which 78 companies and key institutions of the Basque energy ecosystem are part, lead by Petronor, Repsol including CIC energiGUNE itself.

The document aims to establish the framework to create a competitive value chain in the local industry, including production, storage, transport and distribution, as well as to establish the basis for setting up a relevant logistics center to export to the international market.

All this, taking advantage of the industrial, logistic and technological capabilities of the Basque Country and always in accordance with guidelines such as the creation of a sustainable local renewable hydrogen market that satisfies the internal demand; ensuring that this technology provides the basis for decarbonizing the Basque industry, but at the same time that it also involves the deployment of an infrastructure that favors international trade; and stimulates the education, research and industrial development of hydrogen.

Source: Basque Hydrogen Strategy 

With this aspiration, the temporal scope of this strategy mainly covers the decade ending in 2030, which seeks the implementation and acceleration of the industry through more than 55 action-lines organized in 6 major axes/areas of work:

• Axis 1 - Production (6 action-lines).
• Axis 2 - Storage, transport and distribution (5 action-lines)
• Axis 3 - Final Uses (19 action-lines)
• Axis 4 - Industrial and technological development (10 action-lines)
• Axis 5 - Market (3 action-lines)
• Axis 6 - Regulatory Framework (15 action-lines)

To measure the success of this first stage, some specific objectives are established for the end of the period to measure the success of the plan, among which are to reach an installed electrolyzing power of 300 MW, with 100% of the hydrogen produced coming from renewable sources; to achieve that 5% of the energy consumption of the industrial sector is based on hydrogen; and to reach a fleet of 20 buses and 450 goods vehicles that are powered by this technology.

Source: Basque Hydrogen Strategy

Additionally, the document outlines a second long-term stage that includes the vision for 2050 and the main lines of action to be developed in the period 2030 - 2050 for each of the 6 defined work axes.

Strategy aligned with the European vision and other strategic plans

Both the objectives and action-lines of this strategy are aligned with the policies and actions that are also being developed at community level, where the "European Clean Hydrogen Alliance" stands out as the main initiative.

This alliance carries out the European strategy associated with hydrogen and its technologies through 6 working groups or "roundtables" focused on industrial topics that match the content of the axes identified in the Basque strategy to a large extent:

Each of these groups is integrated by prominent members of the industry, and there are currently three Basque agents in them: Iberdrola in table 1 ("Hydrogen production"), Repsol-Petronor in table 4 ("Clean hydrogen for mobility") and CIC energiGUNE in table 6 ("Clean hydrogen for residential applications"), which consolidates the Center as a reference agent in the sector.

Furthermore, the objectives and action lines of the Basque Hydrogen Strategy are aligned with the strategic plans foreseen both at European level (approved by the European Commission last July) and at State level (to be developed through the "Hydrogen Roadmap" approved by the Council of Ministers).

Likewise, the content included in the Basque Strategy is also aligned with other strategic initiatives to be developed in the coming years in the territory, such as the Euskadi 2030 Energy Strategy, the RIS3 Strategy for Smart Specialization, the Euskadi 2030 Science, Technology and Innovation Plan or the Energibasque Strategy. In fact, the Basque Hydrogen Strategy already anticipates the update of the Energibasque Strategy by introducing hydrogen technology as a strategic area.

This group of several aligned and complementary plans aim to turn the Basque Country and its surroundings into an industrial and innovative pole in the energies of the future.

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