Sara Aagesen, Spain’s Third Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for the Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge, announced that the government will present a draft hydrogen bill in the coming months. The legislation will transpose the EU hydrogen package into national law and lay the foundations for a regulated hydrogen market in Spain.
Speaking at the 4th Hydrogen Day organised by Enagás, Aagesen said the draft bill will aim to “create a national hydrogen system and a new regulated market, stimulate demand for hydrogen and renewable gases, strengthen competitiveness and enable the tools needed to develop infrastructure.”
She recalled that Spain has already mobilised more than 3 billion euros in support for renewable hydrogen, adding that the forthcoming bill will provide “greater visibility and long-term regulatory stability to encourage investment and progressively adapt energy markets to the integration of these new green molecules.”
During her address, Aagesen also announced the launch of public consultations on two royal decrees underpinning a total of 465 million euros in financial support:
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At least 415 million euros to support Spanish projects participating in the next auction of the European Hydrogen Bank, under the EU’s “auctions-as-a-service” scheme.
Around one third of this funding will be earmarked for projects supplying the maritime and aviation sectors, key hard-to-abate segments in Europe’s decarbonisation strategy. -
A further 50 million euros, also under an auctions-as-a-service model, for projects that electrify industrial heat processes or directly consume renewable fuels, linked to the upcoming auction of the European Industrial Decarbonisation Bank.
Both support mechanisms will be financed through Spain’s Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, funded by the EU.
Aagesen stressed that renewable hydrogen and other renewable gases must meet the highest environmental standards. She invited stakeholders to participate in a prior public consultation on the creation of a national system to verify sustainability and CO₂ emissions reductions for these fuels, which also opened today.
This framework, linked to the draft royal decree on transport decarbonisation and the promotion of renewable fuels, will establish a traceability and certification system for renewable gases. According to the government, this will reduce auditing and verification costs compared to existing voluntary schemes and allow Spain’s entire gas system to be assessed as a whole through a virtual balancing tank, rather than in fragmented segments.
Finally, the Vice President confirmed that interested parties have received the proposed resolutions of Spain’s first electricity demand access capacity tenders, launched in July. These tenders will enable the grid connection of strategic industrial projects, several of which are directly linked to renewable hydrogen production and consumption.
Together, these measures signal Spain’s intention to consolidate its position as one of Europe’s leading hubs for renewable hydrogen, industrial decarbonisation and investment in clean energy infrastructure.
