To be installed in the Casal da Lebre industrial area, the project will help companies, particularly in the glass sector that consume large amounts of natural gas, to replace this fossil fuel with green hydrogen to be produced in Marinha Grande, in the district of Leiria.

“We plan to build a green hydrogen production plant and supply green hydrogen via the pipeline to the industries in the Marinha Grande industrial park, which are the three glass industries and, eventually, the cement industry that is outside this industrial park but is in the Leiria cycle,” João Rosa Santos, the commercial manager of Rega Energy, explained to Lusa.

He explained that “the hydrogen pipeline will go to each of these industrial units” through pipes identical to those for gas, with no environmental impact, over a distance of around 12 kilometres.

João Rosa Santos added that the environmental impact study has already been carried out and submitted to the Portuguese Environment Agency, which will have to give its opinion, but “no negative impacts were identified”.

Admitting that the reduction in CO2 will be “only a small part” because companies will continue to consume fossil natural gas, the manager highlights the importance of always verifying a reduction in greenhouse gas.

The construction of the factory for the production of green hydrogen will not require the installation of solar panels, since a European regulation “allows this type of installation to be connected to existing renewable solar photovoltaic and wind energy production parks by 2028”.

Thus, the production of green hydrogen uses renewable sources and electricity, and the water used “comes from the wastewater treatment plant of the industrial area itself”, which is subsequently treated.

“What we are doing is negotiating with the owners of existing solar and wind farms and buying the energy from them”, he added.

João Rosa Santos does not hide the fact that green hydrogen is “an expensive energy”, more than natural gas, “which is cheaper because there are more and more fossil natural gas deposits in the world, which reduces its price”.

“But the energy transition has a cost. This is a path that obviously requires a large investment on the part of companies, which are absolutely committed to progressively replacing their consumption of fossil fuels with green energy”, reinforced the commercial manager.

He also stated that “there is regulatory pressure to achieve very demanding decarbonisation targets in 2030, 2040 and 2050, on the path to zero carbon”, under penalty of being penalised with payment of CO2 emission licences.

João Rosa Santos also considered that this “ecosystem is favourable for [companies] to have all the conditions to continue developing their production” because this transition is “a great driver and fixer of existing jobs and, above all, of attracting foreign investment, which wants to settle in the region”.

Rega Energy’s objective is to be “supplying the first molecule” in Marinha Grande by 2027.