New tech park campus to lead Basque energy transition

The Basque Technology Park Network (Spain) is growing and strengthening its commitment to the energy sector with the a new campus, the Ezkerraldea-Meatzaldea Technology Park.

The Ezkerraldea-Meatzaldea Technology Park will house a Centre of Excellence, the Energy Intelligence Center (EIC-SEDE), promoted by the Provincial Council of Bizkaia and the Basque Government, aimed at positioning Bizkaia and the Basque Country as a centre of international competence in the energy sector. Given its proximity to the Port of Bilbao and the Petronor refinery, it also generates new synergies with these sites.

The EIC-SEDE site has been designed as a flexible space to develop technological knowledge and R&D&I projects in the energy sector. The 18,500 m2 building will be divided into different spaces: an area with meeting rooms and common elements managed by the Park, a 2,000 m2 full-scale space for research and testing machinery, as well as a zone for energy sector companies. It will include specialised laboratories and workshops equipped with machinery and technology, with a focus on hydrogen.

The building is scheduled to be completed in December 2022, with the first companies are expected to move in by January 2023. The construction of a second building is also planned with larger pre-industrial spaces, and the capacity to house projects with more special characteristics, including the Hydrogen Living Lab. Work is scheduled to start in December 2022.

It will make the Ezkerraldea-Meatzaldea Technology Park a strategic location in the Basque Hydrogen Corridor (BH2C), a consortium of 80 organisations advancing the decarbonisation of the energy, industrial, residential and mobility sectors that will produce 20,000 tonnes of renewable hydrogen annually and avoid the emission of 1.5 million tonnes of CO2.

This first renewable hydrogen in the Basque Country will be destined for the first buses and light vehicles in a mobility logistics platform of the Park itself, which will have the first hydrogen plant (hydrogen dispenser) in the Basque Country. This 2.5 MW electrolyser will enable the Park to become a hydrogen living lab, where resident companies can test their developments, and where people training in this new energy technology can complete their academic training hands-on.

The park’s hydrogen project will be operational at the beginning of 2023, with the construction of a specific hydrogen pipeline from the refinery’s 2.5 MW electrolyser, which will provide green hydrogen for the EIC, Petronor’s headquarters at the Technology Park, new mobility solutions and the Hydrogen Living Lab.

The launch of the Ezkerraldea-Meatzaldea Technology Park campus will position the Basque Country as a pole of international competence in the energy sector, with an energy ecosystem that has been growing in recent years.

Energy efficiency, renewable energies, hydrogen, new storage technologies, the electrification of consumption and digitisation will be the mainstays in the coming years to accelerate the energy transition, mitigating the environmental impact of human activities on the path towards a carbon-neutral society. The Basque energy sector and the 600+ innovative companies in the Basque Technology Park Network energy ecosystem play a key role in achieving these goals.