EUROPE'S energy transition ambitions have received a much-needed boost with Spain and France ditching plans for an additional gas connector linking the two countries in favour of a green hydrogen-only pipeline. Earlier this year, Spain and France, together with Portugal, had considered reviving the Midcat project gas interconnector between Spain and France. The Midcat link had been abandoned due to, mainly, French opposition, but was being reconsidered as a means of debottlenecking gas shipments and helping to ease Europe's gas shortfall. But instead the countries will move ahead with a more ambitious project - H2Med. Announced jointly with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last Friday, the subsea pipeline will connect Barcelona to Marseille and represent, as she described it, "a major corridor" supplying western Europe with green hydrogen. H2Med is expected to be operational by 2030, when it could carry up to 2 million tonnes per annum of hydrogen, equivalent to around 10 of the European Union's anticipated annual demand.
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