The agreement between France, Spain and Portugal to bolster energy interconnections could turn Portugal into a transit corridor and a ‘green’ energy country, Portuguese Environment Minister Duarte Cordeiro said on Thursday.
“We will not just be a transit corridor. We will be a country that exports green energy, produced in Portugal and with high added value,” Duarte Cordeiro said at a joint parliamentary hearing of the Environment and Energy and European Affairs committees on the discussions and conclusions of the 25 October Energy Council.
According to the minister, the agreement reached “opens the door to more export opportunities via pipeline.”
Cordeiro stressed that the agreement between the three countries “unblocked what was blocked, which was the gas interconnection,” while maintaining the “commitment to strengthening electricity interconnections.
“It is important to clarify that the 2015 agreement was a handful of nothing regarding gas. It had no guaranteed funding and would not move forward in the face of opposition from France regarding the interconnection,” the minister said, referring to the now-ditched MidCat project that would have provided gas across the Pyrenees.
The minister noted that a meeting is scheduled for 9 December in Alicante, Spain, which will bring together European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa, French President Emmanuel Macron and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to decide on the timing and sources of funding.
“The aim is to submit these projects to the European Commission by 15 December for European funding,” Duarte Cordeiro said.
The minister added that reaching this understanding would associate Portugal with the European Hydrogen Backbone initiative, which says that “hydrogen gas pipelines are the most efficient option, in terms of costs, for the transport of large volumes over the maximum average distances expected within the European Union, about other transport options.
Given PSD’s insistence on knowing the agreement reached between the three countries, Cordeiro explained that the agreement’s text would come out of the next meeting in Alicante.
The new Green Energy Corridor, presented in October, foresees the completion of future interconnections between the three countries. These include connecting Celorico da Beira and Zamora, Barcelona and Marseille via an underwater pipeline and ensuring these infrastructures can transport hydrogen and biomethane.
(Maria João Pereira/Lusa.pt)
Source: euractiv.com
