A German-Spanish solar and renewable hydrogen developer has unveiled plans to build a massive 800MW hydrogen methanol plant in southern Spain that will produce one million tonnes of green methanol a year by 2029.
Ansasol plans that the first phase of the MetGreenPort plant in the port of Huelva will produce 150,000 tonnes of green methanol from renewable hydrogen – and carbon dioxide from nearby plants – by 2027.
Within two years, the company plans to more than six times the size of MetGreenPort, taking it to one million tonnes by 2029 with a total electrolysis capacity of 800MW, making it the largest green methanol project in Europe.
The methanol will be produced using renewable hydrogen produced at the plant – the estimated size of the electrolyser in the first phase will be around 120MW.
However, the company has not disclosed how much it will cost to build both phases of the plant, how it will be financed and where it intends to market the methanol.
Ansasol’s core business is developing solar PV projects in Germany and Spain, but the company has a green hydrogen division, Hydron, through which it claims to have around 900MW of renewable H2 capacity under development across 24 projects – the largest of which is 100MW.
In February, the company won the right to build a plant on a 100,000 square metre site in the port of Huelva in Andalusia through a competitive process.
Ansasol and Hydron subsidiary Sunna Solar will be tasked with building the plant, which is the second major green methanol project in the port of Huelva in the last six months.
Late last year, Spanish oil giant Cepsa and Danish company C2X unveiled a €1 billion ($1.07 billion) green methanol plant project in Huelva with an annual production capacity of 300,000 tonnes, with a final investment decision scheduled for 2025.
Methanol is a basic chemical used in a huge number of processes and products, but it is also planned to be used as a fuel, especially in the shipping industry.
