The growth of Smartenergy It has been spectacular in recent years. Among the most relevant projects that the Swiss group is developing in our country, the Orange.bat green hydrogen project in Castellón and the Fuencarral Cluster solar project in the north of Toledo and southeast of Madrid.
What does the company do and what has been its evolution in recent years?
Smartenergy is a Swiss investment and project promotion group, specialized in developing solar, wind and green hydrogen projects, with special emphasis on derivatives such as e-SAF, e-ammonia and e-methanol. We have an active presence in Spain, Portugal, Italy and Germany with local development teams in each of these countries. Our strategy involves sale of assets in solar projects and maintain a majority stake in hydrogen and derivatives projects. In 2024 we have opened a commercial office in Abu Dhabi to attract capital from the United Arab Emirates towards synthetic fuel projects. The group has grown a lot in the last four years, going from less from 40 people in 2019 to 440 currently globally. Part of this growth has come with the integration of the Prodiel Group within our structure, which was completed last year and has been consolidated in 2024. Currently we have built and put into operation more than 7 GW globallymainly solar, and we have a 12 GW renewable project portfolio in different stages of development and 4.5 GW of hydrogen and derivative projects. Of the 12 GW, There are 4 GW in Spain, of which 2.8 GW are in an advanced stage of development.
What projects are you developing in Spain?
in hydrogen We are developing four projects to replace natural gas with green hydrogen. The most advanced is Orange.batwhose first phase is oriented to the ceramic cluster of the valley of Onda, Villarreal and Betxí (Castellón), with 100 MW of electrolysis capacity and about 200 million investment. We are waiting to receive the integrated environmental authorization and we are preparing everything to present it to the call of the European Hydrogen Bank starting next December 3. We expect it to come into operation in the first half of 2027.. In parallel, we are advancing in the closing commercial agreements for the sale of hydrogen for cluster companies. We have also launched the phase two of Orange.bat, located in Alcora and with 80 MW of power, of which we are in the concept engineering phase. The third project is in Sagunto, of 80 MW and aimed at companies from different sectors in the areafor which we have also launched the application for integrated environmental authorization. The fourth project is in Zaragoza, with 90 MW of electrolysis capacity and intended for the entire industrial perimeter of the area.. A relevant question is that The four projects will be very close to Enagás’ H2med futureso that, starting in 2030, we will have the option of exporting, mainly to Germany, part of the hydrogen production. On the other hand, We are studying the feasibility of developing synthetic fuel production projects for aviation in Spain, as well as a project for the maritime sectorfor which we are carrying out feasibility studies evaluating three or four locations.
And regarding the solar part?
One of the most important milestones we have achieved this year is the administrative authorization for construction of the Fuencarral Cluster, a 940 MW solar project in the northern area of Toledo and the southeastern area of Madrid, formed by three subprojects: Loeches of 260 MW, Pradillos of 390 MW and Fuencarral of 291 MW. Last year we ended the year with the sale of this project to the Swiss company Edisun Poweralthough all the development activity is done by us; specifically, our Greenfield PV team in Seville. In 2024 we have also obtained administrative authorization for the construction of this cluster and other solar projects and, in 2025, we hope to complete the rest.
Do you have any new alliances on your radar?
We do not have any additional partnerships planned in the short term.. It is true that at a commercial level, both in our pipeline of derived hydrogen projects and solar projects, various options are being considered.
The costs of production, transportation and distribution of hydrogen remain high today. When will the situation reverse?
It is true that we have a gap between the cost at which we are able to produce and distribute hydrogen to consumer facilities and the price that consumers are willing to pay. But What we have to see is what will happen when the projects come into operation between 2027 and 2028. All forecasts indicate that the price of CO2 will increaseso that gap will reduce as the willingness to pay for offtakers grows. But, Until this happens, we will need public funding. A good option is the European Hydrogen Banka ten-year production aid that will cover that period and allow the gap to be overcome. Besides, we also hope thatas the scale of projects and the production market increases, the price of electrolyzer is going down. Regarding the costs of hydrogen transportation and distribution, All Smartenergy projects are developed with a strategy of proximity of the electrolyzer to consumersso these costs are very low. There is also another important component that, although it is true that it has not been positive for the solar business, it is positive for hydrogen, and that is the drop in prices that has occurred this year in the Iberian market, since approximately 60-75% of the cost of hydrogen is the cost of the renewable energy you use for its production.
What other barriers must be overcome to promote the deployment of hydrogen?
At the regulatory level we must expedite obtaining permits to avoid delays in projects. Water scarcity is also a problem. In Spain and Portugal we have had to make changes in the supply strategy of the projects, providing them with circularity in said resource and being able to consume part of the water from the municipal wastewater treatment plants. We are also implementing the possibility that the companies that will consume our hydrogen can use the reject water from the electrolyzer. Another fundamental issue is the connection to the network. For some of our projects we have obtained access and connection permission, but in others we have not. This is due to the enormous competition there is for the capacity of transportation and distribution networks, where we compete with data centers, standalone battery storage or industries that want to be electrified. Lack of grid capacity is a problem for both the hydrogen and renewable businesses due to the limitation it imposes on the growth of electricity demand. In this sense The holding of tenders for network access capacity on the part of the demand should be encouraged.
Could there be a competitiveness problem for the export of Spanish hydrogen if we have to compete with nuclear hydrogen from France?
We do not agree that nuclear can be used to produce renewable fuels of non-biological origin. However, What could impact us the most is the famous time-time correlation of delegated acts. The number of equivalent hours with which most of the hydrogen projects will be able to operate in Spain will be around 70-75% with the monthly correlation, but, when from 2030 between the hourly temporal correlation, they will drop almost by half (35-40%), and that is a very important impact on the cost of hydrogen production. For this reason, We believe that the monthly correlation should be extended at least until 2035.
Do you think Trump’s victory will hurt the development of clean sources?
I don’t think there’s going to be a slowdown. dry in the US to decarbonization programs, but I am convinced that there will be a slowdown. What really What worries me is the impact that the policy change may have on the ambition of the decarbonization plans of countries like China, Brazil, India or South Africawhich have a much greater global emissions polluting impact.
#Llopis #Smartenergy #portfolio #renewable #projects #development #Spain
