“Green” gas from the Iberian Peninsula will travel through the hydrogen pipeline to the rest of Europe. Prior to this, France, Portugal, and Spain had committed to construct the pipeline, which is anticipated to be operational by 2030.

In a joint statement made on Sunday to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Elysee Treaty, France and Germany announced that they would collaborate on a new hydrogen pipeline project connecting Spain, Portugal, and France.

By 2030, the H2Med project, which will link Portugal, Spain, France, and now Germany, will be able to meet 10% of the hydrogen demand in the EU.

Green hydrogen, produced by electrolyzing water using renewable energy, will be transported through the pipeline that runs beneath the Mediterranean Sea.

According to the Spanish government, H2Med will have the capacity to produce about two million metric tons of hydrogen yearly.

It happens as Europe struggles to minimize its reliance on Russian energy and transition away from dirty energy sources like fossil fuels.

Both French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz declared that they were “stepping up our investments in the technologies of tomorrow, particularly renewable and low carbon energies.”

At the end of April 2023, a joint working group composed of the two nations would offer “recommendations on our strategic choices regarding hydrogen development.”

Macron said after hosting Scholz in Paris, “We started to talk about a strategy for what we want to do on an energy point of view.”

Scholz noted, “We want hydrogen to be available in large quantities and at affordable prices as the gas of the future.”

“This is a technological advance that we can only achieve together. And we have also agreed closely that we want to achieve this together,”Scholz added 

The announcement was welcomed by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who tweeted that it “definitely strengthens its pan-European dimension.”

The pipeline was estimated to cost €2.5 billion ($2.6 billion) when Madrid, Paris, and Lisbon decided to build it in December. It was not immediately obvious, though, how much the expenses would increase if Germany were included.