An underwater pipeline connecting the ports of Barcelona (Catalonia, Spain) and Marseille (Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, France) is unlikely to help ease Europe’s energy crisis in the short term, analysts said, with Spain and France both agreeing it may not be up and running until 2030.
According to Euronews, the joint project between Spain, Portugal and France, agreed last month and dubbed BarMar, replaced MidCat, the gas pipeline which was planned to cross the Pyrenees from Spain into France.
Despite Spanish claims MidCat might be ready by 2023, it was vetoed by France because of political opposition to ecological damage caused by the proposed pipeline through the southwest of the country.
BarMar will mainly be used to pump green hydrogen and other renewable gases into the European grid.
Green hydrogen is produced by passing an electric current through water to split it between hydrogen and oxygen, in a process called electrolysis.
It is considered green because the electricity comes from renewable sources of energy which do not create any harmful emissions.
Hydrogen only emits harmless water vapour while fossil fuels emit harmful greenhouse gases when they burn.
