The Bembibre City Council is one of the partners in the SHAREDH2-Sudoe project, a European initiative that, between 2024 and 2026, is testing renewable hydrogen as an energy storage solution in local energy communities. The municipality in the Bierzo Alto region will develop a pilot project in this area that will allow the transformation of surplus energy from the Local Energy Community into renewable hydrogen for use in agriculture and small-scale personal mobility applications.
“With this project, we aim to harness the energy surpluses of local energy communities to produce green hydrogen, which would be used primarily in rural areas,” explained Andrés Álvarez, Councilor for Public Works, Urban Planning, and Industrial Development in Bembibre.
The SHAREDH2-Sudoe project is directly linked to the Bembibre Sostenible Local Energy Community, which recently received a grant of €260,822 from the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge. This energy community, led by the Bembibre City Council, will equip five municipal facilities with solar infrastructure for public and private energy supply.
However, if there is an energy surplus, feeding it into the grid will not generate any economic benefit for the City Council. Therefore, this avenue for energy utilization to produce renewable hydrogen is being explored. Initially, as a pilot project, it will be used for small-scale applications, with the expectation that it can be expanded to a much larger scale.
“This means that we would be positioning our City Council at the forefront of advancing the technical and scientific knowledge of green hydrogen, which is already the immediate future of energy storage.”
Bembibre’s participation in the SHAREDH2-Sudoe project means joining a European collaborative network to attract initiatives, investments, and training in renewables and hydrogen; implement pilot projects; and offer economic and employment opportunities in the region.
Project Partners
The SHAREDH2-Sudoe project is a European initiative (Interreg Sudoe 2021-2027) coordinated by the Technological Institute of Castile and León (ITCL). Its goal is to help the EU become climate-neutral by 2050 by promoting renewable hydrogen.
The project partners are:
ITCL – Technological Institute of Castile and León (coordinator).
CPT – Working Community of the Pyrenees.
University of Salamanca – EPS of Ávila (Cartographic and Land Engineering).
Bembibre City Council.
Regional Energy Agency of Alta Estremadura (Portugal).
AREANATejo – Regional Energy and Environment Agency of Northern Alentejo and Tejo (Portugal).
Dordogne Farmers Association (France).
ESTIA Research – School of Advanced Industrial Technologies (France).
DERBI Association (France).
Capital Energy Services SL (Spain).
The scope is the SUDOE region (Southwest Europe: Spain, Portugal, and France).
The Bembibre City Council promotes energy transition and industrial development policies, with a special focus on training and employment, in collaboration with entities such as the Santa Bárbara Foundation and ASODEBI.
Photo of Bembibre City Council
Press release https://h7.cl/1lM6M
