The Vice President of the Government and Minister of Energy Transition, Productive Sectors and Democratic Memory, Juan Pedro Yllanes, and the Minister of Finance and Foreign Affairs, Rosario Sanchez, met this Friday with Younous Omarjee, a member of the European Parliament who leads the proposal to create a European climate fund and chairman of the Committee on Regional Development of the European Parliament, to explain the project “Green Hysland”, the first major project of the Green Hydrogen Strategy of the European Union in a southern European state, which will be located in the municipality of Lloseta.
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This presentation is part of the interest shown by the president of the Regional Development Committee of the European Parliament in this project and his visit to Palma on the occasion of his participation this Thursday in the meeting of the Islands Commission of the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions of Europe, the first under the presidency of the Balearic Islands, which served to advance the goal of getting the EU to define a specific strategy for island territories. Omarjee prepares the report on the situation of European islands and EU cohesion that will serve to highlight these specific needs for inclusion in EU policies.
At the meeting this noon, held at the headquarters of the Ministry of Finance and Foreign Affairs, along with the Vice President Juan Pedro Yllanes and the Councillor Rosario Sanchez, were also attended by the Director General of European Funds, Felix de Pablo, the Director General of External Relations, Antoni Vicens, and the Director General of Industrial Policy, Antoni Morro.
The vice-president of the Govern, Juan Pedro Yllanes, said that “this project has a direct subsidy from the European Union of 10 million euros and will mobilize almost 50 million euros as a whole. We are talking about important figures for our industrial economy”. In addition, he said, “I want to emphasize that thanks to this plant will generate 300 tons of green hydrogen per year produced 100% from photovoltaic plants. With this production we could reduce CO2 emissions up to 20,700 tons per year, and thus take a big step towards compliance with the regional Law on Climate Change and Energy Transition, as well as the provisions of the European Union and the Paris agreements”.
Yllanes also defended that “Green Hysland” is a paradigmatic project that will serve as a double lever: first to fight against climate change and, secondly, to feed the transformation and diversification of the production model, a need that has become more urgent than ever after the COVID crisis and that should be an example of good practice that inspires many other regions of the European Union, especially the island regions”.
For her part, the Councilor for Finance and External Relations, Rosario Sanchez, has appreciated the interest shown by the President of the Regional Development Committee of the European Parliament in this project, as Omarjee himself stressed this Thursday after the Islands Commission, when he stressed the importance of taking advantage of the momentum of European funds to advance in energy transition and technological development, among other areas. Councilor Sanchez has remarked that the Government is working in this same direction, as reflected in the commitment to policies to improve the production model and sustainability both in the new draft budget for 2022 and in the Strategic Investment Plan Illes Baleares 2030, and also recalled that recently the same president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has put the Green Hysland project being developed in Mallorca as a “great example” in the face of climate change.
Antoni Morro, General Director of Industrial Policy, has stated that “the Balearic Islands present an ideal ecosystem from which to promote pilot projects based on circular economy. Industrial projects that allow us to make full use of what we have and what we reject, transforming by-products into products with high added value. We want and we have to be referents in the transition from the linear economy to the circular economy”.
It should be noted that this project will be one of those developed by the Government to continue advancing in the energy transition and it is planned that this hydrogen will be used for different functions, including as fuel for the municipal bus fleet of Palma. In addition, the first hydrogen pipeline in the country will also be built to transport this hydrogen to the gas connection of Mallorca, where it will be injected for industrial use. Another potential use is the generation of heat and power for public buildings, hotels and industrial facilities.