Preparing site securing in Portugal – a prospective major country in European hydrogen supply

A team of ETERNAL POWER visited Portugal together with the local cooperation partner to evaluate potential project sites and was impressed by Portugal’s ambitions and pace with regards to decarbonizing their power system and becoming a net exporter of green hydrogen.

Not only is Portugal blessed with lots of sun and wind, but it also has for decades exploited their hydropower potential (7 GW installed capacity) so that they were able to fully exit coal in late 2021 – eight years ahead of schedule. Their aim to reach 80% renewables in the electric power system by 2030 is likely to also be achieved ahead of schedule.

In combination with a well-developed infrastructure of power and gas transmission grid, road and rail transport, multiple ports facing the Atlantic Ocean, and the government’s ambitions of becoming an H2 hub, ETERNAL POWER is convinced that Portugal and the Iberian Peninsula will play a major role within the EU’s energy transition.

The ETERNAL POWER team looked at three different land plots at strategic infrastructure nodes that offer the potential of hyper-scaling, grid injection, and/or exporting derivatives, such as green methanol using exhaust CO2 from different biogenic sources in the vicinity. The team is very excited to dig deeper into these opportunities.