In 2026, Catalonia will establish itself as a strategic hub on the green hydrogen map of Spain and Europe. This autonomous community is home to a thriving ecosystem centred around this energy source, comprising companies, investments and ongoing initiatives. In addition, it has launched two Conceptual Public Participation Plans (PCPP) relating to hydrogen.
One PCPP relates to the future Spanish hydrogen backbone network and was launched in April. The other PCPP relates to the BarMar project, which was launched in May and forms part of H2med. These two consultations emphasise this autonomous community’s pivotal role in developing infrastructure for the deployment of renewable hydrogen in Spain and Europe.
Plans have been made to lay 2,600 km of pipelines across the Spanish mainland. Of that total, 275 km of pipeline will run through 89 municipalities in Catalonia and connect to the regasification terminal operated by Enagás in the Port of Barcelona. Additionally, the BarMar project will lay 400 km of subsea pipeline to create a strategic connection for renewable hydrogen, also from the Barcelona terminal, to the industrial hub at Fos-sur-Mer, near Marseille in France. This will link the Iberian Peninsula’s hydrogen transmission network with northwestern Europe. These infrastructure projects will further reinforce Catalonia’s role as a hub connecting the Iberian Peninsula with Europe.
The PCPP is a participatory mechanism that enables the public, public authorities, and private organisations to contribute to the design of large-scale infrastructure projects from an early stage. One of the main aims of this type of consultation is to provide transparent information on the scope of the projects and take environmental and social factors into account. It also aims to encourage stakeholder participation in order to identify and mitigate any potential impacts at an early stage.
In the case of the backbone network, the PCPP comprises 89 information points (one for each municipality) and 16 in-person participatory sessions. Nationwide, the PCPP runs for 18 months, covering more than 500 municipalities across 13 autonomous communities, and is therefore the largest participatory process of its kind in Spain. The BarMar PCPP includes around 40 information points, five participatory workshops, and specific sessions with various sectors, including the fishing industry. Additionally, each project maintains permanent communication channels, including websites, email addresses and contact telephone numbers.
Each PCPP concludes with a report setting out the contributions received from all stakeholders. Where appropriate, this report is incorporated into the final design of each infrastructure project. Both the future Spanish backbone network and BarMar have been designated Projects of Common Interest (PCI) by the European Union; therefore, the consultation processes are being carried out in accordance with the applicable European regulations. As BarMar is a cross-border infrastructure project, the French developers (NaTran and Teréga) are also conducting corresponding PCPP in France.
In 2024, the Agency for Business Competitiveness (ACCIÓ) published a report on the state of the hydrogen ecosystem in Catalonia. The report highlights that the autonomous community brings together all the elements of the hydrogen value chain, positioning itself as a leading player in southern Europe. At the time of publication, Catalonia already had 198 companies and over 2,300 people employed in the hydrogen sector, generating 700 million euros a year.
Below, we take a look at some of Catalonia’s hydrogen projects.
Much of Catalonia’s green hydrogen industry is centred around the Tarragona petrochemical complex. One of the most ambitious projects is T-HYNET, led by Repsol in collaboration with Enagás Renovable and Messer. This large-scale alkaline electrolyser is located at the Repsol Petroleum complex in Tarragona.
The electrolyser will have the capacity to produce up to 23,000 tonnes of renewable hydrogen per year, and the hydrogen produced will be used for a wide range of industrial and energy applications. The project has progressed through various stages, receiving environmental impact approval in June 2025 and being awarded a public grant of 104.19 million euros as part of the Hydrogen Valleys programme promoted by the Ministry for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge (MITECO).
T-HYNET is currently in the engineering phase, and the hydrogen produced will be supplied to the refinery complex itself and to the future El Morell Ecoplanta facility, which will convert waste into renewable methanol.
With 411 participating organisations and 16 electrolysers at various stages of development, the Ebro Hydrogen Corridor is the umbrella project that unifies the regional strategy. Its aim is not to build infrastructure directly, but rather to coordinate existing initiatives between Aragón, Catalonia, Navarre and La Rioja to avoid duplication and to drive synergies.
With a total capacity of 970 MW, the associated electrolysers place the corridor on the European map for large-scale hydrogen production. One of the initiatives involved is the Catalonia Hydrogen Valley (H2ValleyCat).
Against this backdrop, two key areas of activity demonstrate the dynamism of the Catalan hydrogen ecosystem. Firstly, Lleida-Alguaire Airport is a European testing ground for hydrogen applications in aviation through the aeroH2ub project. Green hydrogen is produced there using solar energy for use in real-world demonstration projects. In December 2025, Aldoratech successfully completed the maiden flight of a hydrogen-powered VTOL drone at the airport. In 2026, the focus will be on validating the use of hydrogen in ground support vehicles and expanding trials with higher-capacity drones.
Meanwhile, the H2CAT research network, coordinated by Eurecat, unites over 60 research groups from 17 organisations. In April 2026, H2CAT and the National Hydrogen Centre (CNH2) organised a meeting to develop collaborative projects under the CDTI Misiones 2026 call for proposals – a government funding programme for major R&D&I challenges. These initiatives are already a reality.
In October 2025, the Board of Directors of the Port of Barcelona gave the go-ahead for a public tender to build the first hydrogen refuelling station within the port area. The facility will produce green hydrogen using electrolysers powered exclusively by renewable energy and will supply trucks, buses and machinery operating at terminals and logistics hubs.
The project, which will help to decarbonise the Port of Barcelona, was awarded to SympH2ony with an investment of over 20 million euros.
The plant is expected to have an electrolysis capacity of 3.1 MW by 2030, expandable to 6.2 MW by 2032. The hydrogen refuelling station aims to produce up to 540 tonnes of green hydrogen per year using electrolysers powered by 100% renewable electricity.
The HyBERUS project, spearheaded by Alkeymia, is one of the most ambitious in the corridor. It proposes three electrolysis nodes, in Caspe and Fabara (Zaragoza) and Ascó (Tarragona), with a total usable power of 360 MW and an expected annual production of 43,195 tonnes of green hydrogen.
The proposed public funding amounts to around 138.6 million euros. In March 2026, the government confirmed that these funds would come from the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR). HyBERUS is one of the seven hydrogen projects selected under this initiative. Work on the Tarragona branch line could begin before the end of 2026.
In short, Catalonia has all the necessary components to become a leading hub for green hydrogen: an industry with high demand, a strategic port, high-quality research, available European funding and an ideal geographical location for exporting to northern Europe. In the future, it will serve as a hub where everything comes together: the operational hydrogen backbone network, the BarMar subsea pipeline, and electrolysers producing hydrogen on a large scale.
