The joint venture between bp and Iberdrola España has commenced construction on Spain’s largest green hydrogen project, a 25 MW facility in Castellón. The project, expected to create up to 500 jobs during construction, involves around 25 Spanish companies. The first phase includes earthworks and site preparation on a 20,000 m² plot near the bp refinery, with civil works beginning in Q2 2025. The main equipment, including electrolysers, will be installed in the second half of the year.
Carolina Mesa, bp’s vice president of hydrogen for Spain and new markets, said, “The start of construction of the largest green hydrogen plant in Spain is great news, because it allows us to see tangible progress in an important industrial decarbonisation project. The bp refinery in Castellón consolidates itself as a model for the transformation of refineries into integrated energy hubs”.
Jorge Palomar Herrero, Director of Hydrogen Development at Iberdrola added, “This project is already enabling the real development of the hydrogen value chain in our country with key equipment manufactured in Spain and contracting more than 25 local companies. The project also brings in 200 GWh/year of renewable energy from Iberdrola’s wind and photovoltaic plants in Spain and meets all EU requirements to ensure that the hydrogen produced is green hydrogen”.
With an investment exceeding €70 million, the project is being developed through Castellón Green Hydrogen S.L., equally owned by bp and Iberdrola España. The plant will be powered by renewable energy via a power purchase agreement (PPA) and is set to produce 2,800 tonnes of green hydrogen annually. This will replace part of the grey hydrogen currently used at the refinery, reducing CO₂ emissions by approximately 23,000 tonnes per year—the equivalent of removing 5,000 cars from the road. Future phases aim to supply green hydrogen to hard-to-decarbonize industries, such as ceramics and heavy transport. The initiative has secured €15 million in funding from Spain’s Recovery, Transformation, and Resilience Plan, backed by the EU’s NextGenerationEU program. The plant is expected to be operational by the second half of 2026.
