Vestas and CIP plan 5GW Spanish wind and solar-to-green hydrogen and ammonia

Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) and Vestas aim to use 5GW of new wind and solar capacity to power 2GW of electrolysis capacity to produce green hydrogen and ammonia in north-east Spain.

They are developing their Project Catalina alongside gas network operator Enagás, electricity and gas group Naturgy, and ammonia and fertiliser specialist Fertiberia.

The partners aim to use the green ammonia – produced by adding nitrogen to green hydrogen – as agricultural fertiliser, and the green hydrogen for decarbonising other industrial processes and blending into the natural gas grid.

They are bidding to use 500MW of grid capacity in Andorra, north-east Spain. The Spanish government is auctioning the rights to use 1.3GW of grid capacity made available there after a thermal power plant was taken offline in 2020.

The first phase of the green hydrogen project will comprise 1.7GW of wind and solar and a 500MW electrolyser. Its generating capacity will consist of “more wind than solar”, CIP stated.

The investor today announced that construction on the first phase would start at the end of 2023. It added that this first phase is “currently in an advanced development stage and is expected to be fully developed and permitted in less than two years”. 

CIP has not yet scoped later phases of the project, but added that the project may eventually see 5GW of wind and solar built in Spain’s Aragon region. This generating capacity will be used to power a 2GW electrolysis capacity to produce ammonia and fertiliser.

This first phase will see 40,000 tonnes of hydrogen produced each year and transported via a new pipeline to Valencia where it will be used to produce ammonia feedstock for a new fertiliser plant on Fertiberia’s existing site.