‘Europe’s largest’ | Solar developer plans giant 800MW green hydrogen-to-methanol plant
A German-Spanish solar and renewable hydrogen developer has unveiled plans to build a massive 800MW green hydrogen-to-methanol plant in southern Spain producing one million tonnes per year of green methanol by 2029.
Ansasol intends to have the first phase of the MetGreenPort plant in the Port of Huelva producing 150,000 tonnes of green methanol from renewable hydrogen — and carbon dioxide sourced from nearby industries — by 2027.
But it then plans to increase the size of MetGreenPort by more than a factor of six within two years, scaling up to one million tonnes by 2029 with a total electrolysis capacity of 800MW, which would make it by far the biggest green methanol project in Europe.
The methanol would be made with renewable hydrogen produced at the plant — with an implied electrolyser size of about 120MW for the first phase.
However, the company has not revealed how much either phase of the plant will cost to build, nor how it is being funded or where it intends to market the methanol. Ansasol had not responded to Hydrogen Insight’s requests for comment at the time of publication.
Nor is it clear whether the carbon molecule needed to make methanol from green hydrogen will be biogenic (ie, sourced from biomass), which has a bearing on whether green methanol produced at the plant would qualify as a renewable fuel of non-biological origin (RFNBO) and therefore be eligible for EU subsidies.
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The EU’s Delegated Acts on RFNBOs only permit the use of industrial-process carbon in synthetic fuels until 2041, around 14 years into the lifetime of the plant.
Ansasol’s core business is developing solar PV projects in Germany and Spain, but it has a green hydrogen business unit, Hydron, through which it claims to have around 900MW of renewable H2 capacity under development across 24 projects — the biggest of which is 100MW.
The company won the right in February to build the plant on a 100,000-square-metre plot in the port of Huelva in Andalusia, as part of a competitive process.
Ansasol and Hydron’s subsidiary Sunna Solar will be tasked with developing the plant, which is the second major green methanol scheme announced for the Port of Huelva in the past six months.
Late last year, Spanish oil giant Cepsa and Danish developer C2X unveiled a €1bn ($1.07bn) green methanol plant in in Huelva with an annual production capacity of 300,000 tonnes, with a final investment decision scheduled for 2025.
And Danish wind developer Orsted is currently building Europe’s largest green methanol plant, the 50,000-tonnes-a-year FlagshipONE in Sweden, backed by funds from the Bill Gates-backed venture fund Breakthrough Energy Catalyst, which last year bought a 15% equity interest in the facility.
Methanol is a base chemical used in vast array of processes and products, but it is also touted for use as a fuel, especially in the shipping industry.
