The ‘Catalina’ project will generate 1,204 direct jobs during construction and 396 in the operation phase.
The ‘Catalina’ project for the construction and operation of a green hydrogen plant in Andorra (Teruel) has been declared this Wednesday of Autonomic Interest and of General Interest, which will allow to reduce the terms of its processing and execution, which will be carried out as a Plan of General Interest of Aragon (PIGA). The project, promoted by the Danish company Copenhagen Insfraestructure Partners (CIP) together with other partners such as Enagás Renovable, will involve a business investment of 1,847 million euros and will generate 1,204 direct jobs in the construction phase and 396 in the operation phase, with salaries higher than the average in the province and giving priority in hiring local unemployed women.
In addition, to promote the hiring of local people, attract young talent to the region and fix population during the operation phase of the plant, the promoters propose the creation of a training center for the operation of renewable energy plants and green hydrogen production, as well as an innovation center for research and development of electrolysis technology.According to the promoters’ forecasts, construction of the hydrogen plant could begin in March 2025, and by December 2027 it could be operational.
100% of the electricity produced will be consumed in Aragon, favoring the industrialization of the area and allowing the total supply of green hydrogen in the Autonomous Community, which is expected to promote hydrogen technologies and encourage business innovation, turning its use into an economically viable alternative for sectors such as mobility and accelerating the transition to the hydrogen economy in the area. In this way, it responds to the priority indicated by the European Union to develop renewable hydrogen as the most compatible option with the objective of climate neutrality and zero pollution.
Elements of the project
The ‘Catalina’ project comprises the construction of a plant for the production of renewable hydrogen through the combination of hydrogen electrolysis technology and photovoltaic and wind power generation. It therefore consists of two main elements. The first is the renewable hydrogen plant itself, which will be located in the Andorra Business Park (PEAN) with an installed capacity of 500 MW, scalable in successive phases up to 2GW. The promoters will make an initial investment of 714 million euros and it will have a production capacity of 84,000 tons/year of green hydrogen by means of electrolysis, which will be increased to 336,000 tons/year as from 2030, with a power then of 2,000 MW and the corresponding additional investment.
The second element of the project consists of the generation assets – four wind farms and nine photovoltaic farm modules – with an estimated energy production of 2,906,940 MWh per year, which will be used to feed the hydrogen plant. They will be distributed among the municipalities of Andorra, Alcañiz, Alcorisa, Alloza, Ariño, Calanda, Foz Calanda, Los Olmos, Crivillén, Mata de los Olmos and Cañizar del Olivar, will have an installed power of 1.1 GW and will be connected to the hydrogen plant through an electrical substation.
In this way, the “Catalina” project will allow the production of renewable hydrogen at a competitive price, which will be used as an energy vector to satisfy industrial demand. In addition, a high volume of oxygen will be produced as a result of the electrolysis process that can be supplied to a large number of industries and projects that require large quantities of this component, such as the metal industry, water treatment, plastic or nitric acid production, and fertilizers.
