BP and Iberdrola have announced the final investment decision to develop a 25-megawatt green hydrogen project at the British company's Castellón refinery. The two parties have set up an equally owned joint venture in Spain, called Castellón Green Hydrogen. This will be their first joint project, which is expected to be operational in the second half of 2026.

The future green hydrogen plant, the largest in Spain according to BP, is supported by the Instituto Tecnológico de la Energía (ITE) and has obtained funding of 15 million euros from the Innovative Value Chain and Renewable Hydrogen Knowledge support programmes in the Spanish Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, with funds allocated by the European Union's NextGenerationEU.

Water electrolysis
Iberdrola will supply the electrolyser with 200 GWh of renewable electricity per year from its photovoltaic and wind power plants. The facility will have five 5-megawatt containerised proton exchange membrane technology modules. After construction, it will produce some 2,800 tonnes per year of green hydrogen by electrolysis, which will replace some of the grey hydrogen (from natural gas) it currently produces.

Around 500 direct jobs will be created during the construction phase. Meanwhile, BP continues to explore opportunities to increase capacity in the coming years. In later phases of the project, the green hydrogen produced in these facilities will also be used as an alternative fuel in industries that are difficult to decarbonise in the Valencian Community, such as the ceramics industry, the chemical industry and heavy transport.

Industrial-scale project
BP's Senior VP for Hydrogen and Carbon Capture and Storage, Felipe Arbelaez, explained, "BP's first investment decision in an industrial-scale project is an important step forward for our hydrogen business. We focus on value, only progressing with the best projects in our portfolio that can create additional value through integration and fully meet our investment objectives."

For Millán García-Tola, Global Hydrogen Director at the Spanish electricity company, this collaboration "is one more step in Iberdrola's firm and real commitment to promote green hydrogen as a key vector for industrial decarbonization", and said that the company "will apply all the experience of its current green hydrogen plants to optimize and accelerate the development of this project".

Economic fabric and industrial capacity
The president of BP Energía España, Olvido Moraleda, said the project "marks a milestone in our strategy and reflects the importance of collaboration, both with other companies that share our vision, such as Iberdrola, and in the public-private sphere. This way, we are not only making progress in the transformation of our infrastructure in Castellón, but we also aim to strengthen the economic fabric and industrial capacity of the entire Valencian Community."

Finally, the CEO of Iberdrola Spain, Mario Ruiz-Tagle, described the project as an example of its strategic alliance with BP, "which unites us to lead the future of renewable hydrogen in the Valencian Community", and concluded, "The green hydrogen economy is emission-free, electrified, attracts investment and creates quality jobs in the region. This is the real energy transition."

^{Photo: BP}