€16 million invested in green hydrogen project in Monforte

A green hydrogen production and operation and maintenance service unit will be created in Monforte (Portalegre), with an investment of around €16 million, it announced on Tuesday.

The project will be developed following a partnership between Lightsource BP and Douro Gas (LSBPDG), on land belonging to the rural parish of Assumar, in the municipality of Monforte.

“The project was subject to approval by the Operational Programme Sustainability and Efficiency in the Use of Resources (PO SEUR) a year ago, and now we are implementing it,” Paulo Preto dos Santos, from Douro Gás, explained to Lusa today.

According to Santos, the project has an investment of around €16 million and is composed of a production unit of green hydrogen and a solar photovoltaic component.

He also indicated that the project must be in operation” by the end” of 2023″, adding that the unit would produce “at most” 89 kilograms of hydrogen per hour.

“We chose Monforte to develop this project because it is one of the access points to REN – Redes Energéticas Nacionais, to the high pressure gas network,” he justified.

According to Paulo Preto dos Santos, the photovoltaic production component of the investment, comprising “10 megawatts (MW),” will be developed on “15 to 20 hectares” of land, while the green hydrogen production component will not reach an area of one hectare.

The announcement of the procedure for the public tender for the work was published on 12 of this month in Diário da República (DR), with a base value of €10,420,000.

Contacted by Lusa, the mayor of Monforte, Gonçalo Lajem, said he was “very pleased” to welcome this investment, adding that this project should create “five or six” jobs.

Which may not be much for more developed municipalities, but “is another opportunity” for the one he heads.

“Five or six jobs in Monforte relate to 500 or 600 in Lisbon and, most of the time, we are talking about qualified labour,” he said.