Portugal negotiates with Netherlands mega hydrogen plant in Sines

Portugal is negotiating with the Netherlands on the possibility of installing a green hydrogen production unit in Sines, powered by solar energy of one gigawatt, which corresponds to the energy consumed by one million homes. This is an investment estimated at 600 million euros, according to the Portuguese radio TSF.

“It is a photovoltaic park with 1 Gigawatt in self-consumption version, which still lowers the costs of electricity production because it has exemptions from grid access tariffs. The state has public land in Sines that can only be used for industrial projects, which can be an important factor in lowering hydrogen production costs and then attracting large national companies to this project, as well as gas, logistics and transport companies,” the Secretary of State for energy, João Galamba, told TSF.

He adds that “we can say to the world and to Europe and especially to the countries of northern Europe that greatly need hydrogen, we have something that central and northern Europe does not have that is the capacity to produce electricity at the costs that make hydrogen viable.”

The Sines plant, with a gigawatt in the electrolysis reactor, working eight thousand hours a year can produce 160 million kilos of hydrogen, which would be enough to supply a fleet of buses and trucks, with a consumption of 20 kilos to 100. According to TSF, it would be possible to “feed a fleet 27 times the size of Carris [public transportation company in Lisbon], which makes 29 million kilometres per year.”